Aug 19 1985
From The Space Library
Martin Marietta Corp. completed an agreement giving it a 25% stake in Equatorial Communication Co., a provider of satellite-based data communications networks, the Washington Post reported. Under the agreement, Marietta acquired about 3.6 million shares of Equatorial's common stock for $13.87½ a share and warrants to purchase an additional 1.8 million shares for $17.50 each. Marietta would assume two seats on Equatorial's board, which would expand to seven members.
Equatorial, which provided small, low-cost micro-earth stations, satellite transmission capacity, and other services that let companies construct and control their own private data communications networks, said it planned to use the funds to reduce debt and provide working capital.
Marietta and Equatorial said they planned to pursue joint ventures in the information systems market. (W Post, Aug 20/85, E4)
Officials at Japan's Institute of Space and Astronomical Research announced that today Japan launched from the Kagoshima Space Center in Kyushu its second spacecraft to observe Halley’s Comet the following March, the NY Times reported. The spacecraft, Planet A, was on a trajectory that would take it within about 60,000 miles of the comet. The USSR had two craft bound for Halley and the European Space Agency had one.
Planet A had a solar-wind analyzer to measure the distribution and direction of high-energy particles from the sun as they encountered the vicinity of Halley’s Comet and an ultraviolet telescopic camera to examine the cloud of atomic hydrogen, glowing in the ultraviolet, that extended tens of thousands of miles out from the comet. (NYT, Aug 20/85, C3)
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