Space Systems Loral got a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract to develop the capability to service and maintain geosynchronous orbit satellites -- a contract Orbital ATK is suing to block. SSL said in a news release Thursday that DARPA’s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program will be the foundation of a new business line in repairing, relocating and refueling in-orbit assets. SSL said it will provide a spacecraft to carry the robotic servicing payload and take care of integration of the two, and DARPA will provide robotics technology and the launch. SSL also said it's in talks "with several key customers" about the planned commercial venture and it will market the offering to both commercial and government satellite operators. Orbital ATK said it plans its first satellite life extension project in 2019 for Intelsat (see [Ref:1604120044]). In its suit (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Orbital ATK and its Space Logistics subsidiary called the DARPA award to SSL a "waste [of] hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars" for satellite servicing technology that NASA and the private sector are developing. The contract violates U.S. space policy instituted in a 2010 Obama administration executive order mandating government space systems be developed only when there's no suitable commercial alternative and precluding space activities that could compete with U.S. commercial space activities, Orbital ATK said, asking for declaratory relief and an injunction. DARPA said RSGS is aimed at technologies important to national security and not expected to be commercially available in the near term, such as ultra-close inspection, mechanical anomaly repair, and installation of technical packages satellite exteriors -- "all of which require highly dexterous robotic arms" like those already created by DARPA. SSL didn't comment about the litigation. Also named as a defendant is DARPA acting Director Steven Walker.

Gilat Satellite Networks and Airbus will jointly work on developing a Ka-band electronically steerable antenna for in-flight connectivity applications, Gilat said in a news release Thursday. Development work on the wing-embedded antenna array will include design, manufacturing and testing.

DirecTV and a plaintiff in a class-action antitrust lawsuit over the NFL Sunday Ticket (see 1512300027) are at odds over the significance of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last month on contract law. The plaintiffs, in a supplemental authority notice (in Pacer) filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, said January's Norcia vs. Samsung ruling makes it clear that a 2013 9th Circuit case cited by DirecTV wasn't binding on implied acceptance of an arbitration clause, and assumptions on which the arbitration clause section of the 2013 decision is based are questionable. The plaintiffs also said Norcia cited a 1972 California Court of Appeals ruling indicating offerees aren't bound to contractual provisions if they're unaware of them and if they are in a document without an obvious contractual nature. But DirecTV in a filing (in Pacer) Wednesday said Norcia actually reaffirms that keeping DirecTV service while knowing there are terms connected with the service means customers validly assent to those terms under California law. On the 1972 ruling, DirecTV said it has never disputed the existence of that general principle under California law, but it believes it isn't applicable to the NFL Sunday Ticket case since the DirecTV commercial agreement was mailed to the San Francisco sports bar plaintiff and the arbitration agreement is the first paragraph in bold capital letters. "The Norcia decision cannot be read to suggest that consent to a contract ... can somehow be nullified as to certain obligations because the offeree allegedly did not read them," DirecTV said. AT&T now owns that firm.

Starz launched its $8-per-month pay TV service on DirecTV Now, it announced Tuesday. Starz joins the separate eight-channel Starz Encore offering, which AT&T first made available in its $70-per-month “Gotta Have It” package when the streaming service launched last year (see 1611280058). Starz on DirecTV Now will offer more than 2,500 TV episodes and movies, it said.

Aerospace joined the Satellite Industry Association as an affiliate member, SIA said in a news release Monday. The trade group launched its affiliate membership category in 2015, aimed at companies and groups previously not eligible for membership.

Flat panel antenna (FPA) sales should hit $9.1 billion by 2026, with the market dominated by fixed broadband services from non-geostationary satellites, and revenue growth being driven primarily by aeronautical equipment, said Northern Sky Research Monday in a news release. NSR said antenna prices will remain high due to the technical complexity of FPAs for mobile applications. It said the in-flight connectivity, leisure maritime and land-mobile government markets mean mobile applications will generate more than 92 percent of FPA equipment revenue by 2026. The researcher said most fixed applications will be the delivery of satellite broadband services to more than 2 million lower-priced FPAs, primarily in Asia and the Middle East, by 2026.

Dish Network is launching a new customer service effort, Tuned In to You, aimed at what it called in a news release "the low customer satisfaction pervasive throughout the pay-TV industry." Dish said it's "examining every customer touchpoint, across all departments," to improve customer service, with one example being the October launch of its Base Camp employee training program where corporate employees work in the field for a month fielding customer calls and accompanying technicians. The company said it expects to graduate 700 workers from Base Camp by year's end, with all interns and full-time new hires at headquarters taking part within the first two months of employment. The company plans to have all existing corporate employees enroll in the training. Dish said it's launching a new advertising campaign, The Spokeslistener, with TV, radio and online spots (see here and here).

Ligado dropped its objection to Aviation Spectrum Resources seeking to have access to Iridium's technical analysis of how Ligado's proposed LTE service might cause interference to the satellite company's receivers (see 1701300066), the company said in a filing Friday in FCC docket 11-109.

SES wants to be able to use the C-band capacity alongside the Ku-band capacity on its AMC-2 satellite, it said in an FCC International Bureau license modification request filed Thursday. The hybrid C/Ku-band satellite, which operates at 84.85 degrees west, currently uses the C-band only for telemetry, tracking and command purposes, SES said, saying it wants to activate its C-band payload to meet customer demand.

Multiple satellite operators are asking the FCC to move the deadline for replies to opposition to the petitions for reconsideration in the spectrum frontiers proceeding. In a joint motion for extension of time Friday in docket 14-177, the companies said moving the deadline from Feb. 10 to Feb. 24 would match the extension previously given for the deadline for filing oppositions and make sure parties have enough time to craft their replies. The 24 filings in response to the petitions for reconsideration “raise complex and technical arguments that will require significant effort to analyze and rebut,” they said. The signers of the joint motion were EchoStar, Inmarsat, OneWeb, SES, Intelsat and Boeing.