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European Satellite Makers Increasingly Teaming Up

Another round of consolidation may be on its way
Paris - Nov 27, 2003
Europe's leading satellite makers face the pressure to close factories, reduce suppliers and slash other costs.

Unable for now to agree on a long-term merger plan, they are taking the less controversial route of teaming up on a growing array of commercial and government projects, easing at the same time some of that pressure.

Coming off a historic global decline in orders for new satellites, France's Alcatel SA and Astrium NV of the Netherlands, the satellite-making unit of European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co., recently landed some $500 million of work to jointly build two communications satellites for a Saudi Arabian-based consortium, plus a pair of European earth-observation spacecraft.

The companies also have put in joint bids on a Vietnamese project and expect to take a similar approach on others, likely including an ambitious military-communications system planned by Germany.

Since Alcatel currently has the capacity to provide twice as many payloads as the number of satellites it assembles each year as a prime contractor, "we have to feed that organization the way it is," through aggressive partnering, according to Pierre de Bayser, the Alcatel unit's executive vice president.

Merger talks have stalled over sharp cultural differences between the two European companies. Both companies have major facilities in France, which makes layoffs particularly difficult.

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Loral Ships Telstar 14 To Sea Launch
New York - Nov 25, 2003
Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, today announced that it has shipped the Telstar 14/Estrela do Sul 1 satellite to the Sea Launch Home Port in Long Beach, Calif., where it is being prepared for an early January 2004 launch.



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