Posted: Tue, Nov 21, 2006, 1:46 PM ET (1846 GMT)
EADS Astrium and Orbital Sciences Corporation have won contracts for the assembly of two commercial communications satellites for different divisions of the same European operator. Orbital announced Monday that it won a contract from SES New Skies for the NSS-9 satellite, scheduled for launch in 2008. The 2,230-kg spacecraft, initially planned for operations in GEO at 177 degrees west longitude, is based on Orbital's Star-2 bus with 28 C-band transponders. On Tuesday Astrium announced that it will build the Astra 3 B satellite for SES Astra for launch at the end of 2009. The spacecraft, based on the Eurostar E3000 bus, will carry a combined total of 52 Ka- and Ku-band transponders, and will operate from 23.5 degrees east longitude.

Related Links:

•  Space News article about Orbital-New Skies contract (subscription required)
•  Space News article about Astrium-Astra contract (subscription required)
•  Orbital press release
•  Astrium press release