The September 1^st explosion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket also destroyed the Amos-6 satellite which was sat on top of the rocket. As well as losing the valuable satellite, the catastrophe has also placed at risk a potential sale of Spacecom, which owns the Amos fleet of satellites.

Amos-6 was Israel’s most sophisticated communications satellite with 39 Ku-band transponders and a further 24 high-capacity Ka-band spot-beams. Indeed, Amos-6 was larger than the existing Amos-2 and Amos-3 satellites already in orbit.

Spacecom’s Jacob Keret (SVP/sales & marketing) has confirmed that the operator is exploring the emergency lease of an existing in-orbit satellite to fill the gap at 4 degrees West, and to use the rented satellite as an interim measure for the time being while Spacecom orders and builds a replacement satellite, likely to take 2-3 years.

Other posts by :

1. Rakuten makes historic satellite video call
2. Rocket Lab confirms D2C ambitions
3. Turkey establishes satellite production ecosystem
4. Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts
5. Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site
6. AST SpaceMobile gets $42 or $1500 price target
7. Analyst: GEO bloodbath taking place
8. SES AGM results: Appaloosa still objecting
9. SpaceX’s Shotwell worth $1.2bn

Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite