Pentagon, FTC Officials Discuss Launch Merger

 

Officials from the Pentagon and Federal Trade Commission met March 17 to discuss the proposed merger of the government launch divisions of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing, according to Cheryl Irwin, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Irwin said the Pentagon will not comment on whether it endorsed the joint venture, known as United Launch Alliance, before the Federal Trade Commission makes its decision on the proposed merger.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing had expected to receive government approval to conclude the deal last year. The companies last year set a March 31 deadline for wrapping up the deal, but could continue to negotiate after that point, said Dan Beck, a Boeing spokesman.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) wrote a Feb. 28 letter in support of the joint venture to Kenneth Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Salazar requested an explanation for the Pentagon's delay in endorsing the deal.

Salazar's letter states the deal will help the Pentagon save money while adding 800 to 1,000 jobs in his home state.

 

 

Inmarsat Managers Sell Off Some of Their Stock

 

Inmarsat managers took advantage of the end of a lock-up period to sell off a portion of their stock in the mobile satellite services provider, with some unloading the maximum 50 percent of the shares they received after the London-based company's initial public offering (IPO) last June.

The stock sale by Inmarsat executives came a day after Inmarsat's largest corporate owners divested nearly all their shares at an average price of 3.78 British pounds ($6.52) per share, according to documents filed with the London Stock Exchange. The institutional sale eliminated an overhang in Inmarsat shares that company officials had said could have put downward pressure on the stock.

Inmarsat's stock price has increased by about 38 percent in the nine months since the IPO. It closed at a price of 3.86 pounds March 14.

The institutional sale, managed by investment banks Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, totaled slightly more than 74 million shares, an amount equivalent to 16.2 percent of Inmarsat's outstanding shares. The sellers included Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Comsat Investments Inc. of the United States and Telenor Satellite Broadcasting AS of Norway. Both were historic Inmarsat shareholders that had maintained their ownership stakes through the organization's privatization and initial stock offering.

Also cashing in their Inmarsat ownership positions were Inmarsat's two principal private-equity owners, Apax Partners and Permira.

Inmarsat managers received a total of nearly 210,000 shares March 14. Those shares were priced at 3.83 pounds based on the company's 2005 financial performance, which met certain targets that permitted the share distribution. Inmarsat Chief Executive Andrew Sukawaty received 55,075 shares; Chief Financial Officer Rick Medlock, 25,456 shares; and Chief Operating Officer Michael Butler, 25,456 shares. The shares will be vested in three installments over the next three years.

Inmarsat managers were awarded an initial tranche of stock following the company's June 2005 IPO, but they were forbidden to sell those shares until March 13, when they were allowed to sell half of their holdings. The remaining half may be sold Dec. 1.

Sukawaty, who received 4.86 million shares following the IPO, sold 20 percent of his stake March 13, the day the lock-up ended. Medlock sold 11 percent of his 2.44 million shares, a total that includes shares placed into a family trust. Butler sold 35 percent of his 2.19 million-share holdings.

Eight other Inmarsat managers sold most or all of the maximum 50-percent stakes they were allowed.

 

 

Alcatel Alenia To Build Ciel's Ku-band Satellite

 

Canada's new satellite operator, Ciel Satellite Communications Inc., has selected Alcatel Alenia Space of Europe to build the large all-Ku-band Ciel-2 satellite to provide high-definition television capacity to U.S. direct-broadcast television provider EchoStar and a yet-undetermined amount of capacity for Canadian users, according to industry officials.

The satellite is scheduled for launch in 2008, Ciel and Alcatel announced March 17.

Alcatel Alenia Space of France and Italy bested offers from U.S. manufacturers Space Systems/Loral and Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, officials said.

Alcatel Alenia's win of the Ciel-2 contract would appear to confirm a lock on Canadian business by European manufacturers in recent years. Canada's established satellite-fleet operator, Telesat, has selected EADS Astrium of Europe for its last three satellites.

The Ciel-2 satellite will operate in Ciel's 129 degrees west longitude orbital slot. Under the terms of Ciel's license with Canadian regulators, the spacecraft must be launched by Dec. 31, 2008.

Ottawa-based Ciel also must reserve up to 50 percent of the satellite's capacity for Canadian customers until the day of launch. If that capacity is not booked, the company is free to sell it to non-Canadian customers.

Littleton, Colo.-based EchoStar has agreed to lease virtually all of the 6,000-kilogram satellite's capacity to broadcast high-definition television programming to its U.S. customers. The exact amount of capacity that EchoStar will have will depend on the amount of presold Canadian capacity at the day of launch.

EchoStar in mid-2005 moved its aging and damaged EchoStar 5 satellite to Ciel's orbital slot, meeting a Canadian regulatory requirement that Ciel begin operating services by August 2005. The agreement was brokered by SES Global of Luxembourg, which is planning a similar arrangement with Mexico's QuetzSat satellite operator.

QuetzSat now is using the former EchoStar 4 satellite in a Mexican-registered orbital slot. The new QuetzSat satellite is expected to be ordered this year, and EchoStar is expected to be the anchor customer for that spacecraft as well.

 

 

Microsoft Buys Remote Sensing Firm Vexcel

 

Vexcel Corp., a Boulder, Colo.-based supplier of remote sensing products and services, will be acquired by Microsoft Corp., a Vexcel spokesman confirmed March 15.

Jerry Skaw, marketing communications manager for Vexcel, said the two companies entered into the acquisition agreement March 15. The deal will require U.S. and European regulatory approval before it can be finalized.

Skaw declined to disclose the sale price.

"The people, products and services of Vexcel will play a key role in delivering Microsoft's vision," Skaw said. He said that the company will remain headquartered in Boulder, but would not provide details about how Vexcel facilities and jobs will be affected by the deal.

However, in an e-mail notifying customers and business partners of the pending acquisition, Vexcel said it will keep its global presence in its existing markets.

Vexcel will become a key member of the team for Microsoft's Virtual Earth, a software application incorporating satellite imagery, according to a copy of the e-mail obtained by Space News. "The future of the geospatial field is being built around Internet-based applications, and the acquisition positions Vexcel to help play a central role in this revolution," the e-mail said.

Vexcel specializes in satellite remote-sensing ground stations and processing equipment, aerial cameras and a variety of products and services related to radar imaging technology. Microsoft spokesman Austin Stewart could not provide additional details at press time.

"The acquisition is part of Microsoft's exciting vision to deliver a dynamic, immersive digital representation of the real world that provides the best local search and mapping experience to consumers, business and government," Stewart said in a written statement.

Ed Jurkevics, an analyst with Chesapeake Analytics of Arlington, Va., said the deal is an attempt by Microsoft to make sure Google is not the only player in the information-access market, and is significant for the remote sensing industry.

"Finally, the commercial market is now in sight; it just doesn't look like what we thought it would look like," Jurkevics said. He added the dollars invested in remote sensing by Microsoft, Google and other competitors such as Yahoo could end up being as profitable for the industry as deals with the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

 

 

Sterner Leaving HASC To Work for NASA

 

NASA has hired former House Science Committee staffer Eric Sterner to serve as associate deputy administrator for policy and plans effective March 20. Sterner will be reporting to NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale, whom he worked for on the House Science Committee from 1995 to 1999.

In 2000, Sterner was named staff director of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee, a position he held until 2001 when he moved to the Pentagon to work as a special assistant to J.D. Crouch, then assistant secretary of defense for international security policy. Since 2003, Stern has been working for the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) as the lead staffer for policy.

 

 

Northrop Demonstrates KillerBee UAV to Air Force

 

Northrop Grumman has demonstrated its KillerBee unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the U.S. Air Force to highlight its ability to conduct surveillance operations for protection of bases, convoys and borders, Northrop Grumman announced March 14.

The KillerBee is under development as a multi-mission, joint-service family of scalable UAVs.

Featuring a 2.7-meter wingspan and carrying both electro-optical and infrared sensors, the UAV can be used to collect video imagery and precision targeting data. It also can be used to relay voice and data across great distances, according to the news release.

The demonstration took place at the Air Force's UAV Battlelab at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles is developing the KillerBee with Swift Engineering of San Clemente, Calif., to meet a broad range of needs for the Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

 

Marburger: Economics Must Drive Moon Agenda

 

John Marburger, the White House Office of Science and Technology policy director, said setting the stage for market-driven exploitation of the Moon's material resources "must be a primary consideration of the long-range planning for the lunar agenda."

"The Moon has unique significance for all space applications for a reason that to my amazement is hardly ever discussed in popular accounts of space policy," Marburger said in a March 15 speech at the American Astronautical Society's Goddard Memorial Symposium in Greenbelt, Md.

"The Moon is the closest source of material that lies far up Earth's gravity well. Anything that can be made from lunar material at costs comparable to Earth manufacture has an enormous overall cost advantage compared with objects lifted from Earth's surface. The greatest value of the Moon lies neither in science nor in exploration, but in its material. And I am not talking about mining Helium-3 as fusion reactor fuel. I doubt that will ever be economically feasible. I am talking about the possibility of extracting elements and minerals that can be processed into fuel or massive components of space apparatus. The production of oxygen in particular, the major component -- by mass -- of chemical rocket fuel, is potentially an important Lunar industry."

Marburger said one approach to making such a future a reality would be for governments to invest heavily in the lunar infrastructure needed to support commercial activity.

"A not unreasonable scenario is a phase of highly subsidized capital construction followed by market-driven industrial activity to provide Lunar products such as oxygen refueling services for commercially valuable Earth-orbiting apparatus," he said.