ref: Teledesic
Wolfgang:
E.g. I would like to estimate if and how many launches
Orbital could do for Teledesic.
I am afraid we do not know at this point,perhaps at least one more.
I think Teledesic is planning to put 2 LEO sats to conduct experiments including the recent one and Orbi may get the next one as well,before they deploy 288 more. As you know Boeing is a partner in the venture and we do not know at this point who will actually launch the 288 sats,it would be very nice if Orbi get the order,wouldn't it?
For this purpose I ask the following questions:
How do Pegasus and Taurus compare to other systems
(Russia's Proton, Ariane, etc.) with respect to
cost per payload, reliability, etc. ?
Is there any statistics available ?
Pegasus has a very good track record,the last launch was the 20th mission for Pegasus. As for Taurus they have performed rather well so far but fewer launches thus far.
As for Proton,Ariane etc they are designed for a different purpose,ie to launch GEO satellites,so these vehicles are designed for a higher orbit than the LEO sat vehicles,which is what Orbital's launch vehicles are designed for.Proton and Ariane are much more expensive to operate on account of the distance they have to travel so actually we can not make a fair comparison between the two types of launch vehicles. I don't know about the stats or how to get them.
How would YOU estimate the likelihood of Bill using ORBI
to launch his 'internet in the sky' ?
I do not know, as Teledesic is still in its early stages of development and I am sure we will know more about it in the future. |
