Arianespace signed a contract with European Launch Vehicle for 10 Vega launch vehicles. The contract follows a long-term procurement agreement for the launch vehicles signed last year, Arianespace said Wednesday in a news release. The launchers will enter service in 2015, it said. The Vega is suited to launch small scientific and earth observation satellites "into low or sun-synchronous orbit," Arianespace said.

An accident investigation board, NASA, National Transportation Safety Board and other entities will carry out a review of the failed unmanned rocket launch Tuesday that destroyed a Cygnus satellite. The satellite was launched on an Antares rocket by Orbital Sciences, which also makes communications satellites. The Cygnus satellite exploded about 15 seconds after take-off from Wallops Island, Virginia, said Orbital CEO David Thompson. The launch was part of an International Space Station (ISS) mission, and Orbital also launches commercial satellites from the island. It’s too soon to know how long the review process will take “or whether Antares and Cygnus missions scheduled for next year … will be affected,” he said Wednesday during a teleconference with analysts and investors. Orbital is “disappointed,” but not “discouraged or dissuaded from our objective to expand the Antares rocket well into the medium launch class,” he said. Orbital’s top priority will be to work to meet its commitments to NASA and “to keep open the cargo supply line to the space station of which Antares and Cygnus play an important part,” he said. Orbital’s view for 2014 remains unchanged, said Garrett Pierce, chief financial officer. The cost of facility repairs and other expenses is reimbursable by insurance, he said. It’s too soon to determine how the failure would affect plans for next year, he said. The ISS crew “is in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies,” NASA said in a news release. “We are relieved to hear there are no reported fatalities, and we anticipate learning more about the circumstances surrounding the launch failure in the near future,” said House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Space Subcommittee Chairman Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., in a joint statement.

The third group of four satellites from O3b Networks is scheduled to launch Dec. 18. With this launch, the company will have 12 satellites in orbit, O3b said in a news release. The satellites will be launched on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana, it said. The satellites will be launched into an orbit that provides O3b customers "with substantial performance benefits due to lower latency or delay," it said.

SES signed a comprehensive consultancy service agreement with Qatar-based Es’hailSat. The agreement gives Es’hailSat full access “to the technical experience and engineering know-how of SES,” SES said Monday in a news release. SES will support the development of Es’hailSat’s new teleport facility, which will be designed as a modern facility providing satellite control and communications support for the Es’hail 2 satellite, it said. The teleport will be designed to allow significant future growth, “and will feature all major requirements” to provide customers with satellite ground station and platform services, it said.

Thuraya partnered with SOS Children’s Villages to provide satellite connectivity to remote communities in the Central African Republic. The agreement will help the charitable organization connect its programs “as well as coordinate emergency preparedness and response teams within the remote communities they work in,” Thuraya said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/12rQbAr). Thuraya will provide public calling units, broadband terminals, SIM cards and other technology, it said.

Kerrisdale Capital Management again said results of Jarvinian's testing for Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) are inadequate and misleading. Testing by Allion shows that TLPS “could reduce the capacity of nearby unlicensed networks by as much as 60 or 70 percent,” Kerrisdale said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 13-213 (http://bit.ly/1vTP4Vj). Engineering simulations also call into question the actual range of TLPS, it said. Independent simulations demonstrate that TLPS will never be able to match the throughput and capacity of a competently designed network “utilizing the many available 5 GHz band channels available today for free,” it said. Kerrisdale urged the FCC to consider the tests conducted by Allion as it assesses Globalstar’s request.

Intelsat General received an Air Force contract to study the viability of using commercial facilities and operations expertise for tracking, telemetry and command of government satellites. The contract aims to reduce operations and maintenance costs “while enabling the government to meet national security space objectives and warfighter operational needs,” Intelsat said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1DB0nnm). Intelsat General will partner with Braxton Technologies to do the study, it said.

ViaSat offered higher capacity to its Exede In the Air service for executives, charters and others who rely on general aviation jets. The service is similar to the Internet in-flight service available on JetBlue and United Airlines, it said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1wk0cZA). “Flight tests have validated multiple devices simultaneously using high-bandwidth applications,” like multisite videoconferencing, social media, and live streaming of HDTV and movies while switching between Ku and Ka satellites, it said.

The Intelsat 30 satellite launched successfully last week. It was launched on an Ariane 5 vehicle, Intelsat said (http://bit.ly/11E79vb). The Ku-band payload is designed to provide distribution services for DirecTV Latin America, and the C-band portion “enhances Intelsat’s existing C-band service infrastructure serving Latin America,” it said Thursday. The satellite will be co-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C satellite at 95 degrees west, it said.

ViaSat is offering a Ka-band terminal with a tail-mounted antenna designed to deliver Ka-band mobile services for general aviation. The Aero Mobile Terminal 5230 will service large-cabin business aircraft, ViaSat said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1xWnLIX). The terminal will help provide an "office in the sky" experience with high-speed Internet and virtual private networks, it said. Ka-band coverage for general aviation can meet the demand for high-volume, on-board data consumption and transmission, "including numerous wireless devices running high-bandwidth applications simultaneously," it said.