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Swedish Space Corporation Completes Acquisition of Universal Space Network

Posted on: Friday, 1 May 2009, 08:00 CDT

SOLNA, Sweden and NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), a global provider of mission critical systems and services to the aerospace industry, has received all necessary approvals from the U.S. Government and has completed the acquisition of U.S.-based Universal Space Network (USN), a leader in space operations for telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) services. USN will operate as a U.S. Corporation and subsidiary of SSC with no change to its operation or organization.

With the completion of this acquisition, SSC and USN will together provide a larger set of global services to their customers while continuing to provide a high level of support to each customer locally. PrioraNet, the trademarked name of their global satellite tracking service, is now positioned to better support civil, commercial and government missions worldwide.

"The acquisition of USN is an important step to provide satellite owners and operators with a world-class, one-stop-shop for satellite operations and management service. This further complements SSC's recent acquisition of the Santiago Chile ground station completed less than a year ago. As other products and services are added, the expanding SSC group will be better positioned to help our customers exceed their global growth and profitability objectives," says Lars Persson, President and CEO of Swedish Space Corporation.

"The objective of this acquisition has been to increase the robustness of USN's current operations services while enabling expansion of commercially based mission critical operations services to the industry," stated Tom Ingersoll, USN CEO. "As part of the SSC group, USN is now well positioned to provide expanded, long term satellite operations services to its U.S. customers."

Joining the USN Board of Directors related to this acquisition are Mr. Eric J. Zahler, Managing Director and Co-founder, Sagamore Capital Group LLC and former President and Chief Operating Officer of Loral Space & Communications Inc., who will also serve as Chairman of the USN Board of Directors; Lt Gen Michael A. Hamel (USAF Ret.), Senior Vice President, Strategy and Development, Orbital Sciences Corp. and former Commander, U. S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center; and Mr. James W. Cuminale, currently the Chief Legal Officer at The Nielsen Company and former Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and General Counsel at PanAmSat. The addition of Mr. Zahler, General Hamel and Mr. Cuminale as board members ensures that USN will continue to provide mission critical services to its several U.S. clients in the government and commercial sectors.

For more information, please contact:

Mikael Stern, General Manager, Swedish Space Corporation, tel +46 70 5666555, mikael.stern@ssc.se or Anna Rathsman, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications, tel +46 70 2630064, anna.rathsman@ssc.se

Tom Pirrone, Vice President Customer Development, Universal Space Network, tel +1-215-394-0136, tpirrone@uspacenet.com

About SSC:

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) is a general contractor in space and aerospace. SSC designs, tests, launches and operates space and aerospace systems. SSC develops satellites, space vehicle subsystems and payloads for sounding rockets as well as airborne systems for maritime surveillance. SSC owns a Teleport, that provides satellite communication services in Stockholm. At the Esrange Space Center, east of Kiruna, SSC launches sounding rockets and balloons and operates one of the world's busiest satellite ground stations. SSC also owns a satellite ground station in Santiago Chile. Through the North European Aerospace Test range - NEAT, at the Vidsel Test Range, SSC is involved in testing various air and space vehicles.

SSC owns several subsidiary companies; LSE, a German company that provides engineering and satellite operation services, USN, a US-based company that provides space operation services, ECAPS a Swedish company that develops and manufactures "green" propulsion systems and NanoSpace a Swedish company that develops micromechanical systems for space applications.

The Swedish Space Corporation group has 600 employees.

About USN:

Universal Space Network, Inc. (USN) is a leader in space operations for telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) services. Offering responsive, reliable and cost-effective solutions to the global government and commercial space community, USN provides unparalleled coverage through a seamless network of worldwide satellite tracking and communications assets. These assets include both those owned by USN and those of our collaborative partners. The company has offices in Newport Beach, CA., and Horsham, PA.

SOURCE Swedish Space Corporation

Source: PR Newswire

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