Troubled Israeli commercial satellite operator Spacecom has won a U.S.$55 million contract from an unnamed customer to use the AMOS-17 satellite to broadcast content to the African continent.
AMOS-17 is being built by U.S. satellite manufacturer Boeing Satellite Systems International and is scheduled to be launched by SpaceX by mid-2019, and is to replace AMOS-5 – built by a Russian manufacturer – that failed in orbit in 2015 after only four years operation of what should have been a fifteen year mission.