The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 1997 in Geneva has agreed to allocate Ka-band frequencies to the Teledesic, Skybridge and Celestri high-speed multi-media satellite systems.
The decision to allow the Skybridge and Celestri to compete with the $9 billion US Teledesic multi-satellite system planned by Microsoft's Bill Gates and entrepreneur Craig McCaw, with support from Boeing, will allow European industry to participate significantly in this multi-media communications application.
The Skybridge is a $3.5 billion programme led by France's Alcatel, in which Aerospatiale has also invested, along with Toshiba and Mitsubishi of Japan, Loral Space and Communications of the USA and Canada's Spar Aerospace. Aerospatiale will build the 64, 1,000kg low-Earth-orbit (LEO) Skybridge satellites, based on its Proteus platform.
Matra Marconi Space has invested in the Motorola Celestri project, which could result in a contract worth over $1 billion to build 71 LEO spacecraft.).
Source: Flight International
