Israel’s Spacecom satellite operator, which owns the Amos fleet of spacecraft, says it is now putting the challenges of the past few years behind it and is returning to normality.

Its latest craft, Amos-17 launched on August 6th, is safe in orbit and is racking up business. Spacecom CEO David Pollack says Amos-17 has booked about $61 million of orders and will come into commercial use in November.

Spacecom’s latest numbers show a 4 per cent uptick in profits (to $41.2 million) for the first 6 month of this year.

The challenges of the past include a lost satellite (Amos-6) in a SpaceX explosion in 2016; a 2015 in-orbit failure of Amos-5; a valuable lost Facebook contract over Africa; a scrubbed acquisition by a Chinese buyer, and financial challenges caused by certain of its shareholders.

As well as the new Amos-17 Spacecom also operates Amos-3 and Amos-4 which Pollack, in an interview at the Paris World Satellite Business Week, says are full. Spacecom also leases Amos-7 (a former AsiaSat craft which is currently contracted until 2020).

Spacecom wants to order Amos-8 but is currently hamstrung by Israeli political decisions. Pollack says that it is rethinking its plans and a new design might emerge in order to replace Amos-3.

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