Three satellites packed with Matra Marconi Space equipment are to blast off in the next four months, the company said yesterday.
The first, Inmarsat 3 F2, is to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday. The launcher will be a Russian Proton marketed by the ILS International Launch Systems group. It will be the Proton's second commercial launch.
The spacecraft is built by Lockheed Martin Astro Space but MMS has provided the communications payload which will enable users equipped with a receiver the size of a laptop to make telephone calls practically anywhere in the world.
The Inmarsat 3 F3 will follow on an ILS Atlas from Cape Canaveral in December. The third, built by MMS as prime contractor, is Eutelsat's Hot Bird 2 which will also be launched on an Atlas in November.
Source: Flight Daily News