Boeing to Restart ICO Satellite Building

Some good news for a change. See story at:

"http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=3&u=/nm/20030825/bs_nm/telecoms_ico_boeing_dc"

Boeing to Restart ICO Satellite Building
(Reuters via Yahoo)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) has signed a contract
to complete construction of 10 partly built satellites for mobile
communication company ICO Global Telecommunications, the jet and
aerospace company said on Sunday, marking a huge boost for its
troubled satellite operation.

Chicago-based Boeing, the world's largest commercial jet-maker and a
leading military and space contractor, could get hundreds of millions
of dollars in revenue from resuming work on the project.

"In a very depressed commercial satellite market, any kind of
development like this is very good news," Boeing spokesman Dan Beck
told Reuters. ...

- Ed Kyle

On 24 Aug 2003 18:14:43 -0700, (ed kyle) wrote:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) has signed a contract
to complete construction of 10 partly built satellites for mobile
communication company ICO Global Telecommunications, the jet and
aerospace company said on Sunday, marking a huge boost for its
troubled satellite operation.


Interesting. Will Delta III be revived, too?

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote in message . ..
On 24 Aug 2003 18:14:43 -0700, (ed kyle) wrote:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) has signed a contract
to complete construction of 10 partly built satellites for mobile
communication company ICO Global Telecommunications, the jet and
aerospace company said on Sunday, marking a huge boost for its
troubled satellite operation.

Interesting. Will Delta III be revived, too?


I would bet against it. First, ICO hasn't selected a launch
provider yet - it previously used ILS/Atlas (success) and
Sea Launch (failure). Boeing Launch Services would probably
offer Sea Launch instead of Delta IV, given its recent
announcement that it would not compete Delta IV agressively
for commercial launches. Finally, Boeing isn't about to
start building Delta III vehicles again since it now has too
much Delta IV capacity in the pipeline (it lost several EELV
missions to Atlas V due to the recent sanctions).

- Ed Kyle

On 25 Aug 2003 18:51:06 -0700, (ed kyle) wrote:


Interesting. Will Delta III be revived, too?


I would bet against it. First, ICO hasn't selected a launch
provider yet - it previously used ILS/Atlas (success) and
Sea Launch (failure). Boeing Launch Services would probably
offer Sea Launch instead of Delta IV, given its recent
announcement that it would not compete Delta IV agressively
for commercial launches. Finally, Boeing isn't about to
start building Delta III vehicles again since it now has too
much Delta IV capacity in the pipeline (it lost several EELV
missions to Atlas V due to the recent sanctions).

Oh, sorry. Which was the satellite series that was manifested on Delta
III before the market collapsed? I thought it was ICO.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote in message . ..
On 25 Aug 2003 18:51:06 -0700, (ed kyle) wrote:

I would bet against it. First, ICO hasn't selected a launch
provider yet - it previously used ILS/Atlas (success) and
Sea Launch (failure). Boeing Launch Services would probably
offer Sea Launch instead of Delta IV, given its recent
announcement that it would not compete Delta IV agressively
for commercial launches. Finally, Boeing isn't about to
start building Delta III vehicles again since it now has too
much Delta IV capacity in the pipeline (it lost several EELV
missions to Atlas V due to the recent sanctions).

Oh, sorry. Which was the satellite series that was manifested on Delta
III before the market collapsed? I thought it was ICO.

Delta III *did* have assignments to launch a bunch of satellites
for ICO. That was before the collapse of the LEO / MEO comsat
industry. I hazard a guess the ICO launch contract is up for
re-negotiation.

The interesting thing here is that someone has a business plan
involving non-GEO comsats that they think will make money.