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Back to Contents12INDUSTRY NEWSvA Boeing Delta II rocketcarrying the GPS IIR-15 (M)spacecraft lifts off from SpaceLaunch Complex 17A at CapeCanaveral Air Force Station,Fla., at 2:50 p.m. EDT, Sept.24, successfully deploying thesatellite to a transfer orbit.(Carleton Bailie - Boeing photo)October 2006nominal 68-minute flight,the rocket deployed thesatellite to a transferorbit.The spacecraft are themost technologicallyadvanced GPS satellitesever developed and aredesigned to providesignificantly improvednavigation performancefor U.S. military andcivilian users worldwide.The satellite will join thefirst modernized IIRsatellite, GPS IIR-14(M),successfully launchedand declared operationallast year and 12 otheroperational Block IIRsatellites currently onorbitwithin the overall29-spacecraft constellation.The Air Forcededicated today’smission to honorAmerican POW/MIAspast and present.The GPS IIR-M spacecraft offer a variety of enhanced featuresfor GPS users, such as a modernized antenna panel that providesincreased signal power to receivers on the ground, twonew military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryptionand anti-jamming capabilities for the military, and a secondcivil signal that will provide users with an open access signal ona different frequency.Alcatel Alenia Space Wins Contractfor German Armed Forces’ SatcomBW SatellitesPARIS — EADS Astrium has awarded Alcatel Alenia Space asatellite contract for the next step of the German Armed Forces’satellite communications program Satcom BW Stufe 2. AlcatelAlenia said the contract calls for the design, manufacture andthe integration of two military satellites.Based on the Spacebus 3000B architecture from Alcatel AleniaSpace, Satcom BW geostationary multi-missions satellites willbe fitted with payloads including Super-High-Frequency (SHF),Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) and Ku-band transponders fromEADS Space. With a launch mass of approximately 2.5 tons anda power of 3.5 kW, the Satcom BW satellites are scheduled fordelivery end of 2008, and due to start services early 2009 withan operational lifetime of 15 years.Alcatel said Satcom BW military communications satellites arekey to the effectiveness of the German Armed Forces, and willprovide the Bundeswehr with a secured multimedia network,ensuring continuous links between the political and militaryauthorities and deployed units around the world. Satcom BWsatellites will provide services over a region stretching from theAmericas to Eastern Asia.Pascale Sourisse, president and CEO of Alcatel Alenia Space,said his company was strongly involved in the bid right fromthe beginning, together with EADS Astrium.DirecTV-Liberty Media DealStill Many Weeks AwayLOS ANGELES, CA — A proposed deal involving RupertMurdoch’s sale of New Corp’s 38 percent stake in DirecTV toLiberty Media, which is controlled by fellow billionaire mediamogul John Malone is still weeks and weeks away, according toan executive familiar with the talks.Reports say the timing of the reports on the talks seems to bedictated by the approach of the Oct. 20 News Corp. shareholdersmeeting, where one of the items on the agenda is a vote torenew poison pill provisions adopted last year to block Libertyand Malone from making a run at the company. The unnamedexecutive said there are a lot of complicated terms that have tobe worked out.Under the deal that is still in the works, in return for the NewsCorp’s stakes, Malone would sell his 19 percent stake in thevoting shares of News Corp., letting Murdoch’s company buyback the shares. The deal, if consummated, could be worth wellover $10 billion. News Corp. has a market cap of $74 billion, anda 19 percent stake of the publicly traded stock would be worth$14 billion. DirecTV has a market cap of $22.8 billion giving theNews Corp. stake a current market value of about $8.7 billion.Susan Kalla, an independent media and telecom analyst, saysDirecTV’s sales of $12.2 billion last year could be a basis forSATMAGAZINE.COM