Eutelsat entered into capacity agreements with three Romanian flagship channels. The channels, Kanal D, B1 TV and Trinitas TV, will expand their reach using capacity on Eutelsat 16A, Eutelsat said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1b1k4VZ). They will benefit from immediate and privileged access to hundreds of regional cable networks and all direct-to-home satellite operators serving Romanian TV homes, Eutelsat said.

International Launch Services signed a contract with Gazprom Space Systems of Russia to launch the Yamal-601 satellite. The launch is scheduled for 2016, ILS said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1aN5y7a). The satellite will be built by Thales Alenia and will replace Yamal-202 to provide fixed communications and transmission services in C band over Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, it said. Positioned at 49 degrees east, Yamal-601 also is designed for development of business in Ku and Ka bands in the Russian market, ILS said.

Communications Daily won’t be published Monday, Jan. 20, in observance of the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Our next issue will be Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Correction: Where Matt Wood is policy director is Free Press (CD Jan 14 p1).

International Launch Services will launch Intelsat DLA-2 next year. The satellite is under construction by Space Systems/Loral, ILS said in a news release. It will provide in-orbit protection services for DirecTV’s Latin America direct-to-home television platform, ILS said. An ILS Proton rocket will launch the satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, it said.

Arianespace will launch the ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus satellites on an Ariane 5 ECA launcher Feb. 6, it said. The launch of the Astra 5B and Amazonas 4A satellites is planned for March 7 and the Soyuz launch of Sentinel-1A for March 28, Arianespace said in a news release.

NewSat signed a contract with a southwest Asia-based telecom company. The contract is for the supply of $160.47 million of capacity on Jabiru-1, NewSat said in a news release. The customer plans to provide cellular backhaul and very small aperture terminal services to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East over 15 years, NewSat said. The satellite is expected to launch in 2015 and $644 million in pre-launch contracts have been secured, it said. “For commercial reasons the customer’s identity cannot be disclosed at this time.”

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates signed a $3.7 million contract to provide Germany-based OHB System AG with satellite communication electronics. The service will be integrated into the EDRS-C satellite, which is part of the European Data Relay Satellite low-earth orbit system, MDA said in a press release (http://bit.ly/Ky23HS).

Gatr Technologies won a U.S. Army contract for procurement of Gatr’s Wideband Global Satcom (WGS)-certified Inflatable Satellite Antennas and associated hardware, services and support. The antennas have a flexible parabolic dish mounted within an inflatable sphere, “reducing weight and packaged volume by as much as 80 percent and thereby improving the agility of deployed military and disaster response personnel,” Gatr said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1cBf5hi). The larger dish size enables more efficient use of satellite bandwidth capacity, it said.

SpaceX successfully launched the Thaicom 6 satellite into the 22.5 degrees inclination orbital position. The satellite was launched Monday on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Fla., SpaceX said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dcX8IR). The mission is Falcon 9’s second flight to a geosynchronous transfer orbit “and begins a regular cadence of launches planned for SpaceX in 2014,” it said.