PARIS — U.S.-based Space Systems/Loral has been chosen to supply two high-powered, Ka-band satellites and ground equipment for Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), a $2 billion initiative over 15 years that aims to bridge the digital divide between urban and regional communities.

Mergers and acquisitions activity in the aerospace and defense industry reached a record $43.7 billion in 2011, edging out the previous high from 2007 as consolidation in the commercial supply chain gained steam and underperforming defense units were spun off. A PwC study scheduled for release Feb. 7 tallied 341 acquisitions, mergers or spin-offs worth $50 million or more announced during the year.

BEIJING — China is firming up figures on the performance of two members of its forthcoming modular rocket family, with suggestions that at least one of the launchers might be a little better than expected. The figures remain patchy, however. The Long March 6, a light rocket designed for prompt launches, will be able to deliver “not less than 1 metric ton” to a Sun-synchronous orbit of 700 km (435 mi.) altitude, says Yu Menglun, a member of the general-design section at CALT, China’s main rocket builder.

HOUSTON — Applications for a small number of openings in NASA’s astronaut corps soared to 6,372 during the last solicitation period, the second highest total ever. This is despite the fact that the U.S. is an estimated five years away from having a commercial follow-on to the retired space shuttle and nearly a decade from piloted test flights of the agency’s deep space-capable Space Launch System/Multi-Purpose Crew Launch Vehicle.

PARIS — Pushing the limits of a six-day launch window, the European Space Agency (ESA) has shifted the debut of its new Vega rocket to Feb. 13 from Feb. 9, allowing ample time to prepare the flight-qualification campaign. ESA says Vega’s flight-readiness review board met Feb. 2 to evaluate mission-preparation status and plans for the final days of the campaign. The Vega will lift off from Europe’s Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

General aviation groups are urging U.S. regulators to withdraw LightSquared’s conditional waiver for a broadband wireless network, saying the GPS system must be protected from all sources of interference. Their comments are in response to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) request for input on LightSquared’s December petition for a ruling that commercial GPS receivers are not entitled to protection from interference caused by a broadband wireless network operating within technical parameters set by the government.

Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) has a full list of work to be completed before its first attempt to send a Dragon capsule to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station, and probably will not meet the March 20 target date set for the mission. Michael Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager, says it will be “challenging” to meet the March 20 date.

NASA’s new technology-development organization is seeking proposals for low-cost, short-development, flight-test projects that will demonstrate communications and proxiimty operations with satellites weighing less than 400 lb., and for propulsion systems for cubesats.