[Satellite Today 04-28-09] An American Arbitration Association panel has ordered Sea Launch to pay Hughes Network Systems about $52 million in a dispute over whether Hughes had the legal right to cancel its Sea Launch contract and use an Ariane 5 rocket to launch the Spaceway 3 satellite in August 2007, according to an April 22 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission report filed by Boeing.
    The arbitration request was filed in August 2007 after Hughes argued that the company was within its rights to cancel the contract because of launch delays following a Sea Launch failure in January 2007.
    Sea Launch argued that failure-related delays in its schedule were covered by the launch agreement with Hughes and could not be used to terminate the contract.