KOUROU, French Guiana -- Europe's Ariane 5 rocket on Dec. 21 successfully launched telecommunications satellites for a U.S.-Japanese joint venture and a startup company that will offer telephone and Internet service throughout Africa after a decade-long struggle for financing.

WASHINGTON - Launch of the next Mars Scout mission will be delayed by two years to 2013 due to an undisclosed conflict of interest with one of two finalists, Doug McCuistion, NASA's Mars Exploration program director, said in a Dec. 21 teleconference with reporters.

WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. a $695 million contract to provide two new Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), the U.S. space agency said in a Dec. 20 press release. Boeing beat out Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif., for the TDRS contract.

KOUROU, French Guiana -- Mobile satellite services operators Inmarsat and SkyTerra-owned Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) announced Dec. 21 that they have agreed to mutual-support measures to favor deployment of a hybrid satellite and terrestrial mobile communications service in the United States. The agreement also includes features that could result in a de facto merger of the two companies even if they maintain separate corporate identities.

BOSTON -- The U.S. Air Force launched the fifth in a series of eight modernized GPS satellites built by Lockheed Martin from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Fla., Dec. 20.

WASHINGTON -- The Boeing Co. of St Louis has formed a new Intelligence and Security Systems division that will provide ground-based and other integrated solutions for its U.S. government customers, the company announced in a Dec. 20 press release.

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said his agency would abide by the restrictions the U.S. Congress has imposed on the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, a $500 million demonstration project aimed at fostering private-sector solutions to NASA's space station re-supply quandary.

GOLDEN, Colo. -- UP Aerospace launched a rocket from New Mexico's Spaceport America Dec. 19, during a brief test that was non-public and unannounced prior to the flight.

BOSTON -- NASA awarded a $96.7 million contract to Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Palo Alto, Calif., to build a lightning-detection instrument for an upcoming series of geostationary-orbiting weather satellites, according to a Dec. 19 company news release.

WASHINGTON -- Carl Marchetto, executive vice president and general manager of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Space Systems Group, resigned Dec. 14, according to a filing the company made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the same day. He will be leaving for Alliant Techsystems (ATK) February, ATK spokesman Brian Cullin confirmed in a Dec. 20 e-mail.

WASHINGTON -- NASA could be forced to delay its selection of a new contender for space station resupply contracts if the $516 billion domestic spending measure approved Dec. 17 by the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law.

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