[Satellite News – 5-14-08] Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract to provide Korea Telecom’s (KT) next telecommunication satellite, Thales announced May 14.
    Thales will manufacture the communications payload for Koreasat 6 and have overall responsibility for design, manufacturing and test of the satellite and ground segment as well as launch and early operations phase, in-orbit test support, and associated services. Orbital Sciences Corp. will provide its Star-2 satellite platform for the spacecraft.
    The satellite will have 30 Ku-band transponders to provide broadcasting and telecommunications services over Korea and is scheduled to be launched in late 2010.