Satellite News

Roskosmos has agreed to pay RUB100,000 (EUR2,900; US$3,700) in compensation to a villager in southwest Siberia after a rocket fragment fell on his land, the local administration said.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. has filed lawsuits against a group of private investors that in March 2008 agreed to buy the company but later said they they would not close the merger transaction at the price agreed upon.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited US$236 million in punitive damages in its case versus The Boeing Company and its Boeing Satellite Services International subsidiary.

A U.S. law firm said it was investigating breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of state law by the board of directors of SpaceDev Inc.

ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd., which last week won a US$370.6 million verdict against Boeing Co. over a failed agreement to build a satellite network, asked a jury for an additional US$949 million in punitive damages. Boeing says it’s punished enough already.

ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited (ICO) was awarded at least US$371 million in its litigation with The Boeing Company and Boeing Satellite Systems International (Boeing and BSSI).

WorldSpace, Inc. has received approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware for the first part of an interim Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) financing in an amount up to US$2 million which will enable the company to meet payroll obligations to critical employees and commence a process to sell the company or its assets.

U.S. Congress has cancelled Defense Department plans to buy and launch two commercial imagery satellites that were to form the Broad Area Space-Based Imagery Collection satellite system (BASIC). In related news, the Pentagon denied it had delayed the competition between Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the TSAT programme but said it would still be reviewing it.