Washington, October 4, 1997 -
When the 135th Atlas centaur booster lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Pad 36B at dusk Sunday, it will mark more than another commercial space launch for Lockheed Martin's International Launch Services division. It will showcase the giant combine's growing power in offering commercial space services. Not only is Lockheed providing the Atlas IIAS rocket for the satellite's ride, its most powerful Atlas still in service.
The company also provided Echostar Corp. the A2100 spacecraft payload. The 8,500 pound satellite was the first Lockheed has built using its state-of-the-art Commercial Satellite Center in Sunnyvale, California. The fact is ,
in doing the Echostar deal, Lockmart used its ability to bring the spacecraft design and the availability of the launch together in a complete package, with their "turn key" operations capability added to the mix to make the package sweet. No other single U.S. aerospace company can currently offer such a comprehensive package of tailored communications payloads and launcher fleet availability, not even Boeing with its McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell divisions.
The only other major U.S. satellite maker, Hughes, continues to rely heavily on Boeing's Deltas, but has increasingly in the past months been moving new customers towards Boeing's Sea Launch Services Zenit three
stage carrier. Look for Zenit to grow its market share in the year ahead, with more head-to-head marketing struggles with Lockheed's Atlas IIAR, scheduled to enter service in December, 1998.
And where does this leave the French, you ask? Banking heavily on this month's Ariane 502 test flight. Without a successful return to flight of the Ariane 5 configuration, its commercial customers will be forced to rely
on the Ariane 4 family while the bugs are fixed in the new launcher. The longer Arianespace is forced to stay with the Ariane 4, the longer they will be forced to delay enjoying the benefits of the bigger and cheaper to operate Ariane 5. And is Japan's H2A marketers listening, and learning, from this competitive fray?
Soviets Planned to Accept JFK�s Joint Lunar Mission Offer
Washington DC - October 2, 1997 - 
Washington DC - October 2, 1997 - Soviet Premiere Nikita S. Khrushchev reversed himself in early November, 1963 and had at the time, decided to accept U.S. President John F. Kennedy's offer to convert the Apollo lunar landing program into a joint project to explore the Moon with Soviet and U.S. astronauts, SpaceCast learned Wednesday from one of the last remaining participants in the decision still alive.
