Martin Marietta Sued Over Botched Satellite Launch

Intelsat, the international satellite organization, has filed a lawsuit seeking $400 million from rocket builder Martin Marietta Co. for a March 14 launch that left a $145-million satellite in a useless orbit.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, accuses Martin Marietta of miswiring its Titan 3 rocket and botching the launch for which Intelsat paid $115 million.

Martin Marietta has said a wiring problem caused failure of the satellite and its attached booster rocket to separate from the Titan 3 when they reached orbit. As a result, the satellite could not be sent on to its duty station 22,300 miles above Earth, where communications satellites operate,

The satellite, which Intelsat had not insured, will be a total loss unless it gets a boost. A space shuttle crew will try to rescue the satellite next year, costing Intelsat another $90 million or so.

Martin Marietta attempted a preemptive strike against Intelsat in July, asking the federal court to declare that its only legal only responsibility was to provide a replacement launch.

Elliott Miller, Martin Marietta’s director of corporate relations, said Intelsat’s suit had no merit and that Intelsat had had an opportunity to buy insurance but declined.

“Under the launch services contract between Martin Marietta and Intelsat, the relationship of the parties for risk of loss is clearly set forth,” he said Tuesday. “The contract provides that Martin Marietta is not liable for the satellite failure to achieve orbit.”

Intelsat alleges that Martin Marietta miswired the launch vehicle “so that the payload did not and could not separate from the launch vehicle in response to commands sent by the Martin Marietta flight computer and computer software.”

The Titan 3 is designed to carry one or more payloads. On its first mission in December, 1989, it put two satellites into orbit. Electrical signals were routed to separate first one satellite, then the other.

The same wiring was in place for the Intelsat launch, which had no satellite in the No. 1 position. As a result, the separation command never reached the satellite.