Posted: Wed, Jan 9, 2008, 8:03 AM ET (1303 GMT)
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will buy the space business of Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) for $1.3 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. The information systems and geospatial services operations, as MDA calls its space business, includes the Canadarm robotic manipulators for the space shuttle and space station, the RADARSAT remote sensing spacecraft, and various other satellite and ground systems. ATK plans to make the MDA space businesses part of a new business unit, ATK Space Systems, that will also include other satellite assets of ATK, including the former Swales Aerospace, which ATK acquired last year. ATK executives said they expect the deal to close in the first quarter of the company's 2009 fiscal year, which starts on April 1, 2008.

Related Links:

•  Vancouver Sun article
•  Space News article (subscription required)
•  Minneapolis Star Tribune article
•  Baltimore Sun article
•  ATK press release