WITH THE NEW Lockheed Martin logo hastily painted on its side, an Atlas 2AS booster blasted off from Cape Canaveral on 22 March, carrying the Intelsat 705 communications satellite into orbit, on the first satellite launch by the newly merged corporation.
Other launch companies have not fared so well in recent weeks, with Arianespace and Orbital Sciences both suffering setbacks.
The Atlas launch was the third of a planned ten for 1995, the next being of an Atlas 2A carrying an American Mobile Communications MSAT.
Lockheed Martin, now operates the biggest satellite launch fleet in the industry, including a final Atlas E, the Atlas 1, 2, 2A and 2AS, the Titan 2, three versions of the Titan 4, the Lockheed Launch Vehicle, (three, models of which are planned) and also the Russian Proton booster, marketed by Lockheed Khrunichev Energia International.
Arianespace suffered a new setback at the Kourou space centre, Guiana, when the countdown for the delayed flight of the Ariane V71 was halted on the launch pad on 20 March by a helium leak in the liquid-hydrogen umbilical to the vehicle. The delay is expected to last for "several days", according to Arianespace.
Corrective measures to the Ariane 4's third stage after the second launch failure of 1994 have delayed the V71 mission from late December (Flight International, 1-7 March).
Also on 20 March, the launch of the Orbital Sciences (OSC) Pegasus XL booster, was aborted 20min before the vehicle was to be dropped, from its Lockheed L-1011 carrier.
The XL appeared to have lost some of its thermal protection system. Being flown on its second mission, the XL was carrying two Orbcomm data- communications satellites and a NASA payload. The first XL launch failed in June 1994.
The much-delayed third flight of Japan's H2 booster - with its geostationary meteorological satellite (GMS) 5 and the space flyer unit (SFU) - took place from the Tanegashima space centre on 18 March. It had been postponed several times, most recently on 14 March after a problem with a data-interface unit. Both spacecraft have been placed successfully in their respective orbits (Flight International, 8-14 March).
Source: Flight International
