THE BUSINESS SPACE RACE : ITT Plans Commercial Satellite ‘Spaceport’ : Aerospace: Launch facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base could lead to the creation of 400 to 500 jobs.
A group led by ITT Corp. on Monday announced plans for a $33-million commercial-satellite “spaceport” at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in an effort to capture part of the booming launch business that is now concentrated in South America, China and Russia.
The spaceport would specialize in preparing and aiding the launches of small- to medium-size payloads of up to 5,000 pounds and, if successful, would be the only major site for commercial satellite launches in the United States.
Between 400 and 500 jobs would be created by the facility, which hopes to host 15 launches by the end of 1997.
But the spaceport will face stiff competition from the likes of Europe’s Ariane-space, which already dominates the commercial-launch industry and operates its own spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
A satellite customer typically will hire a company to build its satellite, and they then will decide where to launch the spacecraft and on what type of rocket. The launch site is often chosen on the basis of reliability, price, convenience, its proximity to the satellite’s intended orbit and the satellite’s size.
Besides Kourou, China and Russia are major providers of commercial-launch services and facilities. A limited number of commercial launches also occur each year at Vandenberg and at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Nonetheless, the Vandenberg partnership--called Spaceport Systems International (SSI)--hopes to snag what could be a burgeoning part of the satellite business: the spacecraft needed for the various wireless communications systems that are now planned.
Several groups of manufacturers are proposing such systems, which would use dozens of lightweight satellites in low Earth orbit to link portable telephones, fax machines and other devices around the globe.
One such system is the 66-satellite Iridium project planned by Motorola Inc. and several partners. Another is Orbcomm, headed by Orbital Sciences Corp.
SSI would bring “the capability to provide an affordable, efficient (launch) package for the Motorolas, the Orbital Sciences and those other companies planning these satellite constellations,” said Brandon Belote, a spokesman for ITT’s Defense & Electronics group in McLean, Va.
Vandenberg, located on the California coastline about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is where a variety of military and commercial rockets are launched.
Indeed, Iridium already has announced plans to launch 40 of its satellites from existing facilities at Vandenberg on Delta rockets made by McDonnell Douglas Corp., which bodes well for SSI’s prospects in competing for other launches in that market.
“Geographically, it’s a good place to launch low-Earth-orbiting, polar-orbiting satellites . . . and there appears to be a growing market for those smaller satellites,” said John Perkins, director of launch services acquisitions for Hughes Communications, a unit of GM Hughes Electronics, a major satellite manufacturer.
Sam Mihara, director for marketing operations at McDonnell’s space group in Huntington Beach, said Vandenberg also “is close to most of the sources of equipment and people” involved in the U.S. satellite business, “and that helps on cost and the availability of parts and skills.”
But while that will help SSI compete on price, SSI also will have to prove its reliability to be a long-term player, because that’s “the most important factor” when customers choose a launch site, Mihara said.
SSI is a partnership of ITT and California Commercial Spaceport, an organization that has been promoting the spaceport concept for the past two years.
ITT will provide the site’s major funding, about $30 million, while the Air Force will contribute $2.5 million. The state of California is also providing about $850,000 in grants to get the project started.
