Israel’s Spacecom buys Boeing satellite for $161m., plans to launch in 2019

Israeli satellite operator Space Communications said on Wednesday it will launch a new telecommunications satellite in 2019 after losing a prior one in an explosion.

Spacecom said it was buying a satellite from Boeing Satellite Systems International for $161 million.

The new satellite, Amos-17, is aimed at expanding and strengthening Spacecom’s coverage of growing satellite-service markets in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, it said.

Amos-17 is designed to operate for more than 15 years.

“It will be a catalyst for Spacecom’s growth plans over the next decade,” the company said in a statement.

Spacecom last year lost contact with its Amos-5 satellite, which was launched in 2011 and provided coverage to clients in Africa.

It had planned to launch Amos-6 on September 3, but two days before the scheduled launch an explosion destroyed both the satellite and a Falcon-9 rocket belonging to Elon Musk’s SpaceX during preparations for a routine test-firing at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Amos-6 was going to be used by Facebook to expand Internet access in Africa.

Spacecom is in negotiations to be sold to Beijing Xinwei Technology Group, which in August said its planned $285m. bid was conditional on the successful launch of Amos-6.

Beijing Xinwei said last month the purchase price had been lowered to about $190m.

Israel’s Eurocom Holdings owns 64% of Spacecom, whose shares were up 3.6% in afternoon trading in Tel Aviv but are down some 70% since Amos-6 was destroyed.

(Reuters)