TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Eurostar 3000 buses scheduled for launch on Proton and Zenit 3SL boosters in 2003
International Launch Services (ILS) and Boeing-led company Sea Launch have been selected to launch the first two of a new generation of Intelsat 10 series satellites to be built by Astrium .
The Eurostar 3000 buses will be launched in 2003 on Proton and Zenit 3SL boosters. The launch contracts are thought to be worth around $60 million each. One of the satellites will carry 36 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders, and the other 45 C-band and 16 Ku-band transponders. Both operate with 8kW (11hp) of payload power.
Launch of the Intelsat 10 will require Sea Launch's Zenit 3SL booster to be uprated to achieve a 14% performance increase. Initially, this will be done by using lighter components and increasing second-stage thrust on the rocket. However, Sea Launch and Ukraine's Yushnoye company, the Zenit builder, is looking at a much larger upgrade (Flight International, 11-17 December). A standard ILS Proton M with a Breeze upper stage will be used to launch the other Intelsat 10 series craft.
Meanwhile, the ILS consortium, which involves Energia, Khrunichev and Lockheed Martin, has confirmed further details of the 12 commercial launch contracts signed in 2001, worth $1 billion. The schedule calls for five launches on the Russian-built Proton and seven on the Lockheed Martin Atlas models. Proton will carry two SES Americom, one SES satellite, Astra 1K, Echostar's satellite number 8 and an unidentified fifth craft, possibly from Intelsat.
Four of the seven Atlas launches will be on the new Atlas V, due to make its maiden flight, carrying Eutelsat's Hot Bird 6, in May. Further flights will carry an Inmarsat 4 and two Lockheed Martin-built craft, including Telesat's Nimiq 2. Asiasat 4 and Echostar 7 will fly on Atlas IIIs, while Superbird 6 flies on an Atlas IIAS. ILS, which made six Atlas and Proton launches in 2001 after a record 14 launches the year before, has a commercial launch backlog worth $3 billion.
Eurockot, meanwhile, has won another contract, to launch a piggyback satellite, this time for the Czech Republic. The 66kg (145lb) Mimoso mini-satellite will provide data on the density of the upper atmosphere.
Unrelated to the Sea Launch activities, a Zenit 2 booster was launched successfully from Baikonur on 10 December, carrying a Meteor 3M Earth observation satellite, plus three small research sub-satellites, including Pakistan's much-delayed 70kg Badr B.
Source: Flight International
