Jeff:
The CD Radio sats are GEOs--well kind of. At one point in their orbit, they are at least. So, the SLA is important for them. I am glad I don't own any of it either. The tight manifest for Proton comes from the delays in delivering sats(i.e. Telstar 6, Nimiq, etc.). Here is more political crap out of Russia.
flatoday.com
Feb. 5, 1999
Russia's inaction on rogue nuclear technology threatens U.S. launch deal
By John Omicinski
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON - Growing impatient with Moscow's lack of action to stop nuclear technology transfers to Iran and other rogue states, U.S. officials are threatening to end Russia's lucrative launches of U.S. commercial satellites.
''We need to send a strong signal,'' said Stephen Sestanovich, special U.S. envoy to the former Soviet states. Each satellite launch lost would penalize Russia's collapsing economy by $100 million, he said.
''We want public enforcement,'' he said, something the Russians haven't been willing to carry out.
Sestanovich said it was an ''open question'' as to whether the Russian government actually had the willingness to police the situation. He described Russian officials as ''convincingly nervous'' about the state of the country's nuclear security.
Cutting off space cooperation, he said, is being seriously considered as a way of waking up the Russians to a serious matter.
Sestanovich said the United States has been pressing Russia to no avail for ''prosecutions, fines, and arrests'' of people who are helping Iran and other states develop either nuclear or missile technology.
Russian organized crime doesn't appear to be involved in the technology transfers, said Sestanovich.
''Bureaucrats and scientists are the core of the problem ... The Iranians are offering enormous sums and really cushy conditions,'' he said, making it very attractive for the poorly paid or unpaid Russian experts.
Cutting off the satellite launches, he said, may be the best way to register Washington's impatience and frustration. Russia will run out its quota of 16 launches at midyear, he said, and so far Washington has approved no more.
Sestanovich told a group of defense reporters that Iran is trying to develop the expertise to maintain a full-fledged nuclear arsenal, and not just a few nuclear-tipped missiles.
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