US satellite/terrestrial 4G-LTE venture LightSquared is back on track to hit 1 January’s FCC milestone after solving an issue that prevented the full deployment of its first bird.
Satellite contractor Boeing, which manufactured the Sky Terra 1…
US satellite/terrestrial 4G-LTE venture LightSquared is back on track to hit 1 January’s FCC milestone after solving an issue that prevented the full deployment of its first bird.
Satellite contractor Boeing, which manufactured the Sky Terra 1 spacecraft, confirmed its 22 metre-L-band reflector has been fully unfurled, in a statement sent to media outlets on 14 December.
“Although the occasional delay in a full deployment sometimes occurs on a satellite, it is not a situation we face very often,” said Craig Cooning, VP and general manager at Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems.
The manufacturer had assembled a team of experts with antenna supplier Harris Corp to solve the reflector anomaly, which was identified following the satellite’s 14 November launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Before Sky Terra 1’s antenna was successfully unfurled, LightSquared risked missing an extended ATC milestone deadline with the FCC to commence satellite operations by 1 January 2011.
A failure to fully deploy the bird would have also forced the venture to launch a spare satellite at a significant cost for its hedge fund backers Harbinger, which is also heavily invested in Terrestar Network, a mobile satellite services operator that is currently in Chapter 11.
Boeing will continue to carry out a series of on-orbit checks over the next several months before fully handing the bird to LightSquared.
Martin Harriman, LightSquared’s VP of ecosystem development and satellite business, said: “We congratulate the Boeing, Harris and LightSquared teams who have worked diligently over the past week to successfully deploy the SkyTerra 1 L-band reflector.
“We look forward to Boeing’s completion of in-orbit testing of the SkyTerra 1 satellite and handing over this Space Based Network to us in early 2011. LightSquared is proceeding on schedule with its roll-out of the nation’s first integrated wireless broadband and satellite network.”
News of the satellite’s antenna success will also serve as an early Christmas present for the insurance community, which faced seeing a healthy year of profit for space insurers turn into one of just over break-even.
For 2010, the global income for the industry insurers is approximately US$650m, while claims so far have reached around US$390m.
Willis is SkyTerra 1’s broker.
