April 11 - SES Americom, a subsidiary of the commercial satellite manufacturer SES, will abandon attempts to salvage a recently launched AMC-14 geostationary satellite for unorthodox reasons. The March 15 launch was a partial failure, which caused the satellite not to reach its final geostationary orbit at 22,600 miles from Earth. An anomaly during the second burn of the fourth stage of the rocket launch cause the failure. In an attempt to salvage the operation, SES engineers figured a way to perform a specific orbit and lunar flyby that would bring the satellite to its proper geostationary orbit.
The only problem? Boeing somehow patented the exact maneuver that SES plans to use, despite being an operation based on the laws of physics. This patent likely will not hold water in court, but SES decided to play by the rules and contacted Boeing to license the patent to perform the maneuver. Unfortunately, the two companies are currently involved in another $50 million legal battle over an unrelated matter. Armed with this predicament, Boeing held the patent hostage and told SES that it could purchase the patent license only if SES agreed to drop the lawsuit. SES seems like it will abandon the lunar flyby, rather than the $50 million suit, because it fully insured the failed launch. The company called the loss “a disappointment.”
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