The international joint venture Land Launch is preparing for its second flight to launch the Space Systems/Loral built Telstar-11N telecommunications satellite in December following its 28 April maiden mission to send an Israeli spacecraft into orbit, says the Russian Federal Space Agency.
A Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Zenit 3SLB will be launched from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the payload. The rocket is capable of putting 3,600kg (7,920lb) into geostationary transfer orbit.
Land Launch's joint venture's members include Norway's Aker, Russia's Energia, Boeing and Ukraine's Yuznoye. These companies have been working together for Sea launch. It is through Sea Launch that Land Launch's services are marketed.
Thales Alenia Space says its Spanish subsidiary Thales Alenia Space España will supply the X-band communication subsystems and S-band transponders for the first three Sentinel satellites in the joint European Union, European Space Agency's Earth observation programme, Kopernikus, formerly Global Monitoring for Environment and Security.
Boeing and its satellite manufacturing arm could face penalties of over $700 million say ICO Global Communications' legal representatives. A Los Angeles superior court awarded ICO damages because, say its lawyers, Boeing was guilty of "wrongful conduct in charging the communications company exorbitant sums to complete a fleet of satellites and concealing and misrepresenting information regarding launch vehicles for the satellites". Boeing has appealed against the court decision.
Source: Flight International
