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SpaceX gives free ride to replacement for Facebook's fried satellite

Israel's Spacecom still loves Elon enough to also pay for future launch

Spacecom and SpaceX have settled their differences over a burned satellite. The Israeli company has once again signed Elon Musk's company for launch services.

Spacecom has told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange it expects to use SpaceX for a launch in 2019, and possibly a further launch in 2020.

Their relationship looked doomed after a spectacular Falcon 9 launch failure in 2016 destroyed a Spacecom satellite built to help Facebook take over those parts of the world not yet under Mark Zuckerberg's loving gaze.

Spacecom demanded at least a free ride by way of compensation, and that's pretty much what it got.

The company said the 2019 launch of AMOS-17 cost will be completely covered by credits from last year's AMOS-6 fireworks show.

AMOS-17 is being built by Boeing to replace another Spacecom bird, AMOS-5, which failed in 2015 after an electrical fault.

That issue left Spacecom renting space from AsiaSat to get a footprint over Africa.

If all goes well, a reused Falcon 9 will hoist AMOS-6's replacement, AMOS-8, in 2020. ®

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