Satellite News

Harris Corporation and Exelis, Inc. announced a definitive agreement under which Harris will acquire Exelis in a cash and stock transaction valued at US$23.75 per share, or an approximately US$4.75 billion enterprise value.

Kosmotras will fulfil its contract obligations with regard to launches of Dnepr rockets with foreign-owned spacecraft, the programme’s CEO Alexander Serkin was quoted as saying.

QinetiQ technology will be responsible for guiding the European Space Agency’s IXV ‘space taxi’ safely back to Earth on its maiden test flight, due for launch on 11 February 2015, the company said.

On 4 February 2015, specialists from RSCC and ISS Reshetnev company have succeeded in fully restoring communications and broadcasting services on Ekspress-AM33.

The telecommunications satellite Yamal-401, designed and built by ISS-Reshetnev Company, has started operating.

Intelsat S.A. and Kymeta Corporation announced an agreement to design and produce innovative, flat, electronically steerable, Ku-band mTenna satellite antenna solutions that are optimised for the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellite (HTS) platform. The first Intelsat EpicNG satellite is expected to launch in late 2015.

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems and OHB System AG (OHB) announce the completion of the initial Dream Chaser for European Utilisation (DC4EU) study co-funded by the Space Administration of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and OHB. OHB and DLR are both based in Germany.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has received a contract from Orbital Sciences Corporation to deliver XR-5 electric propulsion subsystems over the next three years for the next generation GEOStar-3 commercial geostationary orbit communications satellite platform.