Lockheed Seeks One More Atlas 5 Commercial Launch in 'Tight' 2016

摘要

Lockheed Martin is hopeful of landing another commercial customer this year for an Atlas 5 launch that it would try to squeeze into a tight 2016 manifest, a company official said. Steve Skladanek, president of Denver-based Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, said that despite the high price of an Atlas 5 relative to other commercially available vehicles, customers remain interested due to the vehicle's high reliability and schedule assurance. "Next year's a little tight" for the Atlas 5 manifest between its government missions and two planned commercial launches, Skladanek said in an interview here at the World Satellite Business Week conference organized by Euroconsult. "But we've got customers that have approached us to see if we can fit something else in in 2016 and we're looking to see if we can't do exactly that."