Looming Trouble for Satellite Firms

摘要

Satellite operators have good reason to be concerned following the bankruptcy filing by Sea Launch, one of the three primary providers of commercial launch services for geostationary-orbiting telecommunications satellites. Although Sea Launch says it will continue operations as it attempts to reorganize its finances, supply chain issues continue to hobble the company - to the point that its ability to fulfill a contract to loft the W7 satellite for Eutelsat this fall is in doubt. Unless and until Sea Launch emerges from bankruptcy with a clean balance sheet and somehow manages to come up with sufficient cash to motivate its Russian and Ukrainian rocket hardware suppliers to deliver their goods, satellite owners for whom schedule assurance is paramount are likely to have but two real choices for launching geostationary payloads weighing 4,000 kilograms and above: Europe's Arianespace consortium and International Launch Services (ILS), the U.S.-based company that markets Russia's Proton rocket.