Tim Furniss/LONDON
LOCKHEED MARTIN and AT&T have joined Space Systems/Loral and Hughes in the bid to capture a newly emerging geostationary-orbit (GEO) satellite-communications market.
The companies have filed applications to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch and operate high-power, Ka-band satellite systems offering a broad array of high-data-rate, digital-communications services which will play a major role in the information revolution, including the wide use of video telephones.
Previous applications to the FCC have been filed by Space Systems/Loral, to operate CyberStar satellites, while Hughes plans a project called Spacelink. Teledesic, a venture financed by US software company Microsoft, has proposed a Ka-band scheme in low-Earth orbit for worldwide mobile-telephone communications.
Lockheed Martin's $4 billion plan, for which the company is seeking international investors, will consist of nine satellites located at five positions in geostationary orbit. AT&T has proposed a 12-satellite scheme in what it describes as a "fledgling plan", envisaging the start of services in 2000.
Loral is proposing a single satellite, the CyberStar, for an estimated $442 million. Hughes' Spacelink plan would involve 12 satellites, providing a global service in the year 2000 at a cost of $3.2 billion.
Hughes has introduced a powerful satellite called the HS-702, offering customers almost twice the capacity and power of the most sophisticated commercial satellites now in operation. It will be able to generate 15kW of payload power and carry over 50 high-power transponders. The first HS-702 will be the Hughes Galaxy X.
The new spacecraft bus is a low-risk evolution of the HS-601 series - which has become a world bestseller with 56 orders - yet offering "unprecedented flexibility in payload configuration", says Hughes.
The HS-702 will also have an advanced version of Hughes' xenon ion propulsion system, for stationkeeping; and gallium-arsenide solar arrays, offering 11kW of power. The current HS-601 High Power model offers 8kW capability.
The new satellite is be able to carry a 1,000kg communications payload and be compatible with the new McDonnell Douglas Delta 3 launcher, which Hughes has already booked for ten launches.
Source: Flight International
