Finance

By Nick Mitsis As we were going to press, the two largest U.S. military contractors, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., announced the formation of a joint venture, United Launch Alliance, which combines their once competitive rockets into one family to provide launch services for the U.S. Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space...

By Julie Blondeau An atmosphere of stiff competition remains overhead as global launch service providers continue to race against time and win as many contracts as possible in today’s lackluster market. More importantly, however, each of the players is now more focused on customer satisfaction than ever before. There is no room for error in...

by Owen D. Kurtin The re-election of President George W. Bush means that a continued heightened governmental focus on the security aspects of the satellite business to the potential detriment of commercial considerations may be expected. The principal flashpoint for security and commerce issues is technology exports. The commercial health of the satellite manufacturing and...

by Nick Mitsis Even though increased business applications have emerged within key markets for executives in the global satellite communications industry, the operational side of the satellite arena is slated to remain the same for the near term. From satellite operators and spacecraft manufacturers to the launch service providers, the trends of 2004 will likely...

After years of economic malaise, stalled business plans and a lackluster air enveloping the global commercial satellite industry environment, executives began to gain momentum as the economy strengthened, and business began churning again within the boardrooms. One of the most important shifts toward positive business in 2003 came from the return of the financial market...

By Kelly Holder Back in the 1990s money, along with champagne, was flowing through the halls of launch vehicle companies and the global satellite industry at large. Times were good. Those years experienced a significant increase in the number of commercial launches and everyone hoped it would last. This flow of steady business propelled the...

by Chris Mecray The summer of 2003 was clearly tough for the global space market, as commercial players struggled to hold on until some semblance of a recovery kicks in–and faces are turning a disturbing shade of blue. While Europe started off the summer on an improving note with a restructuring of its rocket’s program...

by Carissa Bryce Christensen Should Europe and the United States be spending billions to protect a launch industry that cannot make it commercially? Painfully, the answer is yes. The launch industry is in crisis. Overcapacity has driven commercial launch prices down nearly by half compared to a few years ago. Revenues have dropped at a...

by Chris Mecray Two of the major U.S. satellite launch providers, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, have just completed $1.5 billion in investments in upgraded launch vehicles (not including government development funding), and with great fanfare, recently completed their first missions, successfully delivering satellites for Eutelsat to designated orbits. When I mention to investors that the...

By James Careless Arguably, buying a rocket these days just got more interesting. With the virtual disappearance of the non-geosynchronous (NGSO) market and a cyclical downturn in geosynchronous (GSO) launches, the world’s big three launcher companies–Arianespace, Boeing (including its Delta program and its partnership in Sea Launch), and Lockheed Martin/ILS–are in a fight for survival....