US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has unveiled the satellite launch industry’s first “refund or reflight” programme as part of its push for more commercial missions.
The company, which operates through the United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint…
US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has unveiled the satellite launch industry’s first “refund or reflight” programme as part of its push for more commercial missions.
The company, which operates through the United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture it shares with Boeing, said the deal covers total rocket malfunction for all future non-US government contracts. Partial refunds will also be available for partial malfunctions.
“This programme demonstrates Lockheed Martin’s confidence in the Atlas launch vehicle, while saving customers costs and hassle,” said Robert Cleave, chairman of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services.
“It also streamlines the launch process, allowing customers to focus on the success of their payloads and their businesses.”
Speaking to SatelliteFinance on the sidelines of the Satellite 2014 conference in Washington, Cleave said the company had been drawing up risk assessments for the new offering for about a year.
He said the deal will be particularly attractive for nascent operators relying on the success of an expensive, large scale satellite.
Lockheed’s medium-heavy class Atlas V rocket enjoys a clear track record of 114 launches in a row but, apart from recently being picked to place a satellite for Mexico, has struggled to secure geostationary commercial customers for several years. This is largely because of the rocket’s relatively high cost and a manifest typically dominated by government spacecraft.
But Lockheed sees space for around eight commercial missions a year for Atlas V in 2017 and 2018, after NASA and the Air Force reach their peak launch period in 2016.
It is also putting pressure on the US government to block-buy Atlas V rockets to bring their prices down.
The company’s refund scheme will help further cut costs for operators as they will only need to insure the payload on the rocket.
