U.S. signs multi-nation agreement to pay for new satellite

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U.S. signs multi-nation agreement to pay for new satellite

Defense officials from Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S. have signed an agreement to share the costs of, and the bandwidth ...

Federal News Network Staff

January 19, 2012 8:30 am

< a min read

Satellites are expensive, so the Defense Department is passing the hat among international partners to pay for a new one. Defense officials from Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S. have signed an agreement. They’ll share the costs of, and the bandwidth from, a Wideband Global Satellite. Right now, the U.S. has three of the satellites in orbit. It will launch five more by 2018. The six countries will collectively pay for a ninth bird. Each satellite costs about $1 billion to get into orbit.

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