Boeing Co. has been awarded a contract to launch a pair of commercial satellites in 2007 for the Italian Space Agency, Boeing announced Dec. 11.
Under the contract from Alcatel Alenia Space Italia, the prime contractor for the Italian Space Agency, two Delta 2 launch vehicles will each carry a Cosmo-SkyMed spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Boeing Launch Services will procure the launch vehicles and related support from United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that began operation Dec. 1.
Cosmo-SkyMed is an Earth observation dual-use system that consists of four satellites and ground stations. The system will acquire radar images of Earth using an X-band synthetic aperture radar instrument at the request of institutional and commercial users.
