Boeing has been contracted by Space Systems Loral to launch 28 more Globalstar worldwide mobile communications satellites on seven Delta IIs.
The first eight - and so far only - satellites in the series were launched on two Delta II boosters from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1998. Forty-eight satellites and eight in-orbit spares will eventually be required to declare the Globalstar system fully operational.
Three Delta launches will take place in May-August, with a further three in the fourth quarter of the year and one next year.
Two of the fourth quarter launches will use the standard nine strap-on booster Delta II versions, launched from Vandenberg AFB, California. The remainder will be Canaveral launches using four strap-on boosters.
The Globalstar contract with Boeing has been influenced by delays to the first of six planned launches of four satellites each on Russian Soyuz boosters. These should have started last November, but have been delayed, mainly because the terms of a new US-Russian launch agreement have not been finalised.
The first Soyuz launch is tentatively scheduled for February, to be followed by two more this year. Arianespace has one contract to launch six satellites in September.
Another major influence was the loss of 12 Globalstar satellites in a Russian-Ukrainian Zenit failure last September. It is highly unlikely that two further contracted Zenits will be used.
nThe Boeing-led Sea Launch consortium will conduct a launch dress rehearsal for the Zenit 3 booster in the Pacific in February in preparation for a maiden flight carrying a dummy payload in March. The Odyssey launch platform and Sea Commander mission control ship will work with an unfuelled Zenit for the rehearsal.
If the March maiden flight is a success, the first commercial Sea Launch flight will carry the Hughes-built Galaxy XI communications satellite.o
Boeing's second Delta II launch of the Globalstar satellite
Source: Flight International
