Israel's Spacecom, which operates the Amos satellite series, will receive $196 million in damages over the loss of the Amos-6 satellite in September. Amos-6, a communications satellite slated to replace the aging Amos-2 that was launched into orbit in 2003, was destroyed on Sept. 1 in a catastrophic static test malfunction. During the routine test at Cape Canaveral Air Base in Florida, an explosion had engulfed a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket on which the Amos-6 satellite was mounted, destroying it just two days before it was scheduled to be launched into orbit. Israel's Spacecom suffered a $200 million loss in the incident, but the satellite was insured for $330 million. The company stands to get its insurance settlement by late November.
