McDonnell Douglas Wins $400-Million Launch Contract : Aerospace: Huntington Beach plant will provide 8 Delta rockets to carry 40 satellites into space. Deal won’t affect local hiring.

As expected, McDonnell Douglas Corp. said Thursday that it had won a contract from Motorola Corp.--valued at more than $400 million--to launch 40 communications satellites for Iridium, a proposed mobile-phone communications system.

Although the contract will generate new jobs at Vandenburg Air Force Base near Santa Maria, the Iridium award won’t affect employment in Huntington Beach, where McDonnell Douglas manufactures the Delta rockets that will carry the satellites into space.

The $3.37-billion Iridium system is one of several competing systems that promise to deliver wireless, hand-held telecommunications services via satellites in Earth orbit. McDonnell Douglas plans to use eight Delta II launch vehicles to place 40 satellites in orbit. Each rocket will carry five satellites into orbit. The Iridium consortium intends to use rockets from Russia and China to launch the remaining 26 satellites.

The Iridium contract is the largest commercial launch contract ever won by McDonnell Douglas. The company has been launching military versions of the Delta rocket for 16 years, and has had 48 consecutive successful launches since 1986.

The Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International Corp. in Canoga Park will build the Delta II’s first stage main engine. Aerojet’s Propulsion Division in Sacramento is building the second-stage engine.

The first launch is scheduled for 1996, and the Iridium system is to begin operating in 1998.