Nov 22 1999
From The Space Library
Lockheed Martin launched a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 2A rocket, a badly needed success in a year of launch failures, delays, investigations, and diminishing business. The company had failed to put three satellites in orbit in April, sustaining a total loss of US$1.5 billion. Investigations into the launch failure of a rocket using similar parts had delayed Lockheed International Launch Services' maiden flight of the Atlas IIIA, causing its first customer, Space Systems/Loral, to launch its Telstar 7 satellite on a European Ariane booster, instead. NASA had lost contact with its US$125 million Lockheed Martin built Mars Climate Orbiter in September and, in the subsequent investigation, had discovered that Lockheed had used English units of measurement instead of metric, resulting in miscalculations in navigational data. Although for many years Lockheed Martin had supplied satellites to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the U.S. government agency responsible for spy satellites, in September the NRO had awarded a major contract to the Boeing Company to develop the next generation of imaging-reconnaissance satellites. Lockheed Martin also faced increased competition from Russia's new Dnepr rocket, Europe's Eurockot, and the U.S.-based Orbital Sciences Corporation's Pegasus.
A Russian Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying four Globalstar satellites into orbit. The launch was Russia's first from the space center in Kazakhstan, since a Proton rocket exploded after launch on 27 October, prompting the Kazakhstan government to reimpose its launch ban. Kazakhstan had lifted the ban partially after Russia agreed to pay US$400,000 in compensation. Media reports indicated that Russia had earned US$70 million from commercial launches such as that conducted for Globalstar Inc., an important income source for the Russian space program.
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