May 10 News Items

EADS Reports Q1 Loss as Airbus Restructures (Source: AIA)
EADS reported a first-quarter loss and said the weak dollar and costs related to the restructuring at Airbus hurt results. The company reported a loss of $13.5 million. Executives expect Airbus to report a large loss this year but return to profitability in 2008. EADS also said it is making progress toward the sale of some of its sites as part of a restructuring program.

Orbital Wins Multisatellite Order (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Orbital Sciences Corp. has won an order for as many as five communications satellites from SES Americom. The contract includes firm orders for two satellites, AMC-5R and a ground spare, with options for three additional satellites over the next few years. The first two satellites, scheduled for delivery in mid and late 2009, will carry 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders and generate five kilowatts of power; future satellites will be identical to the first two. The satellites are the third and fourth new small commercial GEO communications satellites ordered from Orbital this year.

Mars Spacecraft Delivered to Florida for Launch (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A NASA Mars lander scheduled for launch in August arrived at the Kennedy Space Center earlier this week to begin launch preparations. A C-17 spacecraft shipped the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft from Colorado, where it was assembled, to Florida on Monday. Workers will begin preparing the spacecraft for an August launch on a Delta 2 spacecraft. Phoenix is scheduled to land in the northern arctic plains of Mars in spring 2008, where the stationary lander will dig into the surface to look for any ice deposits that may exist there.

India to Launch More Foreign Satellites (Source: Times of India)
India's space agency, which successfully launched the Italian satellite Agile last month, has signed agreements for putting into space three more foreign satellites. The government is encouraging Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, to promote the commercial launches. Antrix has inked commercial agreements with EADS Astrium of Europe to jointly make and supply two commercial communication satellites.

Loral Awarded Contract To Build Satellite For SES New Skies (Source: Loral)
Loral has been awarded a contract to manufacture a new spacecraft for SES NEW SKIES, a subsidiary of SES Global. The NSS-12 satellite will be used to enable communications services for telecommunications providers, broadcasters, corporations and governments in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India and other parts of Asia.

Curbs on Satellite Photos May be Needed (Source: AP)
The director of a little-known U.S. spy agency that analyzes imagery from the skies says that the increasing availability of commercial satellite photos may require the government to restrict distribution. "If there was a situation where any imagery products were being used by adversaries to kill Americans, I think we should act," Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, said.

EU Seeking to Take Over Financing of Troubled Galileo Project (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
The European Commission said EU's Galileo satellite navigation system would need to be entirely financed with public money to get the troubled program back on track. The private consortium building the project was supposed to give plans on Thursday to overcome the current impasse, but their solutions had been "far from being sufficient," said a Commission spokesman. Therefore, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot was preparing recommendations to member states, with the best option being that public authorities take over the financing of Galileo's construction. The construction was originally expected to cost 1.5 billion euros (2.0 billion dollars), but Barrot now expects the price to reach "a range between two and three billion euros", said the spokesman.