spacetoday.net: News briefs: June 17

Posted: Tue, Jun 18, 2002, 7:59 AM ET (1159 GMT)

Israeli officials showed off its new Ofeq 5 reconnaissance satellite with images of Tehran, AFP reported Monday. Officials gave General Shaul Mofaz, who immigrated to Israel from Iran at the age of 9, images of the neighborhood where he grew up before moving. Ofeq 5, the country's newest imaging satellite, was launched last month.
Shares of XM Satellite Radio fell 4.5 percent Monday after an analyst downgraded the stock. Tim O'Neil of SoundView Technology downgraded XM's stock from "strong buy" to "underperform" after citing concerns about the company's satellite fleet and the need to raise as much as $360 million before reaching break even in 2005. XM officials said that O'Neil's analysis was based on information that had been known for several months, and that XM's satellite fleet was working well.
The satellite industry is lobbying the FCC to force radar detector makers to speed up a transition to a frequency that will not interfere with satellite receivers, USA Today reported Monday. New radar detectors emit at frequencies that can interfere with VSAT terminals used by ATMs, gas station credit card systems, and others. Radar detector makers said they are transitioning back to older, non-interfering frequencies but will not complete the transition until the end of this year.