Posted: Sat, May 10 10:20 AM ET (1420 GMT)
The Canadian government announced Friday that it was upholding a decision made a month earlier blocking the purchase of the space unit of a Canadian company by an American corporation. Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice said in early April that he would block the acquisition of the space division of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) because the deal did provide a "net benefit" to the country. Prentice confirmed that decision early Friday at the end of a 30-day review period where ATK and MDA tried to convince the government to allow the deal to go through. The decision kills the $1.3-billion deal, which some in Canada had objected to because of concerns about control of the nation's leading space company, including its RADARSAT-2 satellite, by a foreign company. MDA had sought the sale to be able to better tap larger American markets. The Canadian government did award MDA a contract on Friday for continued support of the Canadian-built robotic arm system on the ISS; the four-year contract is worth $103 million.

Related Links:

•  Vancouver Sun article
•  Ottawa Citizen article
•  Bloomberg News article
•  Canadian Press article
•  Industry Canada press release

Posted: Thu, May 8 6:10 AM ET (1010 GMT)
Satellite communications company ORBCOMM announced Wednesday that it has signed a contract with a Colorado-based microsatellite manufacturer for a new generation of satellites to replace its existing system. ORBCOMM awarded the $117-million contract to MicroSat Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corporation, for 18 satellites for ORBCOMM's Generation 2 system. The satellites, to be launched in 2010 and 2011, will replace the existing ORBCOMM satellites that have been in low Earth orbit since the late 1990s; six other replacement satellites, built by OHB-System, are planned for launch in June. Launch services will be contracted separately, and MicroSat Systems will choose the communications payload within the next 30 days from one of two providers. ORBCOMM's "Little LEO" satellite constellation provides low-data-rate communications services for asset tracking, messaging, and related applications.

Related Links:

•  Space News article (subscription required)
•  Denver Rocky Mountain News article
•  Denver Post article
•  Denver Business Journal article
•  ORBCOMM press release

GIOVE-B sends first signals
Posted: Thu, May 8 5:50 AM ET (0950 GMT)
Europe's second experimental navigation satellite transmitted its first signals on Wednesday. The Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element B (GIOVE-B), launched late last month,...

Discovery moved to launch pad
Posted: Sat, May 3 7:31 PM ET (2331 GMT)
NASA moved the space shuttle Discovery to the launch pad Saturday morning in advance of its mission to the International Space Station scheduled for late...