The Delta team at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., is making final preparations for the second launch of four satellites in the Globalstar telecommunications network. The launch is scheduled for April 23. The 15-minute window opens at 6:54 p.m. EDT (2254 GMT).
The Delta 2 7420-10 has been designed by Boeing (NYSE: BA) engineers to meet the lighter requirements of the Globalstar payload. The vehicle has only four solid rocket motors, instead of the traditional nine, to lift Globalstar’s satellites into low-Earth orbit. The same vehicle design was used to successfully launch the first four Globalstar satellites on Feb. 14.
The Delta 2 is manufactured by Boeing in Huntington Beach, Calif., with final assembly in Pueblo, Colo. The 7420-10 two-stage launch vehicle is approximately 126 feet tall and eight feet in diameter. The rocket is powered by the RS-27 main engine built by Rocketdyne, a division of Boeing.
“This is another important milestone for Globalstar,” said Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer of Globalstar and chairman and chief executive officer of Loral Space & Communications. “It represents the second major step toward the commencement of service of this leading-edge, satellite-based system. The successful first launch by a Delta II in February reinforced our confidence in achieving the scheduled deployment of Globalstar’s commercial service in the first quarter of 1999.”
Globalstar expects to have launched 44 satellites by the end of 1998. The remaining four satellites will be launched early in 1999, to complete the Globalstar constellation of 48 satellites.
Globalstar, led by Loral Space & Communications of New York, is a consortium of international telecommunications companies providing worldwide, low-cost, reliable satellite-based wireless communications.
