The bankrupt Australian Newsat company came the end of the line after a Delaware court ruled that Lockheed Martin had the right to cancel construction of the Jabiru-1 spacecraft it was building for the start up satellite operating firm. The US constructor had been paid US$193 million to date but had US$78 million owed to complete the spacecraft’s construction.
Concomitantly, the launch on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle is also expected to be cancelled – though the rights to the launch slot remain for the time being with Newsat’s administrators. Finance houses have lost money on the business failure with the US Ex-Im bank reported by Space News to have lost the majority of the US$193 million already spent. The separate launch financing by the French export credit agency Coface may be returnable dependent on what happens with the Arianespace launch booking.
