Loral: nobody has anything to say?!?!?

???

Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker wrote in message ...
At 20 Jul 2003 05:33:27 GMT "MSu1049321" wrote:

???

Is there A BIT more information?

This last week Loral filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

What the hell happened with Loral's stock market value?
Did they lose a contract, or what?


It is much worse than that.

The bottom has fallen out of the commercial space business.

Furthermore, competitor Boeing this last week announced they have
decided to completely get out of commercial space completely and focus
exclusively on military space, taking a $1.1 billion charge.

That could be the three sentences,
you made only the question marks for...


It has been widely reported in the media and sci.space.news

Welcome to the recession.

Actually it was announced that Boeing will stop marketing the Delta4 for
commercial launch applications; they will still push Delta2 and SeaLaunch
for commercial.



"Charles F. Radley" wrote in message
om...
Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker wrote in message
...
At 20 Jul 2003 05:33:27 GMT "MSu1049321" wrote:

???

Is there A BIT more information?

This last week Loral filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

What the hell happened with Loral's stock market value?
Did they lose a contract, or what?


It is much worse than that.

The bottom has fallen out of the commercial space business.

Furthermore, competitor Boeing this last week announced they have
decided to completely get out of commercial space completely and focus
exclusively on military space, taking a $1.1 billion charge.

That could be the three sentences,
you made only the question marks for...


It has been widely reported in the media and sci.space.news

Welcome to the recession.

Am Sun, 20 Jul 2003 16:02:04 GMT schrieb "no_one":

Actually it was announced that Boeing will stop marketing the Delta4 for
commercial launch applications; they will still push Delta2 and SeaLaunch
for commercial.

These Boeing news were known by me - but the (disappointing) Loral
news were a real "news". Maybe I read too much news groups and
newsletters, so I did not acknowledge that about loral until now.

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)
--
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In article ,
Charles F. Radley wrote:
This last week Loral filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Correction: for Chapter 11 bankruptcy *protection*. Chapter 11 is what
you do when there's some hope of recovery, provided creditors are kept at
bay and a court supervises a reorganization; many companies which enter
Chapter 11 do successfully come out of it again.

What the hell happened with Loral's stock market value?
Did they lose a contract, or what?

The bottom has fallen out of the commercial space business.

Not really. Loral simply overextended itself, in the Globalstar disaster
in particular, and now business is in a slump and so they couldn't rely on
cash flow from new work to bail them out when things got tight.

The business is still there. People *are* still signing contracts for new
satellites, and launches for them. But the tempo, and the cash flow, has
slowed down greatly for the moment.

Furthermore, competitor Boeing this last week announced they have
decided to completely get out of commercial space completely and focus
exclusively on military space, taking a $1.1 billion charge.

Uh, no, that's just wrong. They decided to focus Delta IV marketing on
the government market for a while, and finally conceded that their rosy
forecasts of near-term commercial sales for it were wrong. But they are
still the world's largest builder of commercial satellites, and they still
market Delta II and Sea Launch for launching them.

(Why non-government customers would buy Delta IV instead of Sea Launch has
always been a good question. Many people expected Boeing to drop one or
the other, rather than going on competing with itself.)
--
MOST launched 1015 EDT 30 June, separated 1046, | Henry Spencer
first ground-station pass 1651, all nominal! |

(Henry Spencer) wrote

Uh, no, that's just wrong. They decided to focus Delta IV marketing on
the government market for a while, and finally conceded that their rosy
forecasts of near-term commercial sales for it were wrong. But they are
still the world's largest builder of commercial satellites, and they still
market Delta II and Sea Launch for launching them.

(Why non-government customers would buy Delta IV instead of Sea Launch has
always been a good question. Many people expected Boeing to drop one or
the other, rather than going on competing with itself.)

Does this mean high-fives in Ukraine and whoever it is in Russia that
the makes the engine and other parts? How much now-evaporated future
D4 commercial business can be expected to go to Sea Launch?

In article ,
Allen Thomson wrote:
(Why non-government customers would buy Delta IV instead of Sea Launch has
always been a good question. Many people expected Boeing to drop one or
the other, rather than going on competing with itself.)

Does this mean high-fives in Ukraine and whoever it is in Russia that
the makes the engine and other parts? How much now-evaporated future
D4 commercial business can be expected to go to Sea Launch?

Note that Boeing hasn't said it will turn down Delta IV commercial orders --
only that it won't actively seek them. A customer who wants to give them
money for a Delta IV launch isn't likely to be turned away.

That said, yes, I imagine the Sea Launch suppliers are happy. Not only
does it signify less competition for future business, but they were surely
wondering whether Sea Launch actually had a future within Boeing.
--
MOST launched 1015 EDT 30 June, separated 1046, | Henry Spencer
first ground-station pass 1651, all nominal! |

(Henry Spencer) wrote


Note that Boeing hasn't said it will turn down Delta IV commercial orders --
only that it won't actively seek them. A customer who wants to give them
money for a Delta IV launch isn't likely to be turned away.


I ask because I don't know, but is the infrastructure for
D4 commercial launches much different than for government
launches? Payload preparation, integration and mating facilities,
for example.

If not, then commercial can benefit from Boeing maintaining
government launch capability. If it is much different, then the
cost to commercial customers is going to go up because the
infrastructure maintenance/restoration cost will have to be
paid by a smaller number of customers.

In article ,
Allen Thomson wrote:
I ask because I don't know, but is the infrastructure for
D4 commercial launches much different than for government
launches? Payload preparation, integration and mating facilities,
for example.

Generally, not a whole lot. Maybe a little, depending on details.
--
MOST launched 1015 EDT 30 June, separated 1046, | Henry Spencer
first ground-station pass 1651, all nominal! |