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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (3983)	7/10/1998 9:58:00 AM
From: Geoff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Here are some general comments from the Fool, but no big hoorays for the G* launch. Was everyone that confident, or is everyone sleeping? If no one else cares to be, I'll be the happy one! Woohoo. ===================== Subject: Re: Zenit launched ! Date: Fri, Jul 10, 1998 05:06 EDT From: Smolky Message-id: <1998071009061900.FAA24618@ladder03.news.aol.com> Great news, this is huge for GSTRF's stock, because now analysts and investers will be more at ease with the future. I would not be suprised if GSTRF is up more then 4-5% today, but then i thought they would be down yesterday as a reaction to the delay and it wasnt down because of the delay. Smolky Subject: Re: CD Radio Date: Thu, Jul 9, 1998 08:38 EDT From: Fozziebare Message-id: <1998070912385600.IAA03261@ladder03.news.aol.com> On a flight out to CA a few weeks ago I happened to be sitting next to some SVP over at Muzak, who I imagine is a direct competitor to CD Radio. I asked him about the potential of beaming music into cars, etc, and he said that they have been trying to do it for years, but that the quality of sound degrades too much, and that they want to remain known for their high quality feeds. He particularly mentioned the difficulties Muzak has had with cruise-ships, because he has been approached numerous times to pipe music into them. He thought that the idea of beaming music to cars was amazing, but didn't think it would happen anytime soon. Is Muzak a competitor? Does what this fella said have any merit, or has CD Radio solved the sound quality degradation problem he mentions? later, geoff Subject: Re: CD Radio Date: Fri, Jul 10, 1998 08:20 EDT From: Readware Message-id: <1998071012200000.IAA01640@ladder03.news.aol.com> When CD first came out there were problems with a lack of towers (cells, so to speak) for their transmission. Because of that, a study (do not recall which) said that there would be fade and major degradation in the delivery from CD to a moving vehicle. Qiestions arose as to the need then either for more towers or GEOs and hence more financing (dilutive of equity). Solution proposed: changel inclination of orbit, add another GEO, and that on paper should end the quality of sound/fade issue. That is where CD is right now. My comments on this are neither an endorsement nor a rejection of CD Radio-- I am only posting here what I have read in the trade papers in answer to your comments about Musak. Subject: Re: Russia's Postpones Zenit-2 Again Date: Thu, Jul 9, 1998 09:14 EDT From: AjitC Message-id: <1998070913141400.JAA05692@ladder03.news.aol.com> "We will build them sausages"... guess who said that? Hint: He also took his shoe and slammed it on the table in NY. There is not doubt in my mind that rockets/launch vehicles are very complex system involving complex engine and fuel controls, valves. Then there is the guidance system. Also, in this case we are not taking about launching a 50 Megaton device over some city where precision is not an issue. The big surprise is how these things have worked near flawlessly all these years and men landed on the moon. I do believe that in their heyday the Soviets did indeed build some fine launch vehicles and spacecraft. Now they are so broke that they are having a hard time getting their men back from the space station. I am sure that Loral, Globalstar and the Europeans are paying cold hard cash for these launches. However, I doubt much if any of it goes to pay decent wage to the engineers who are working on these launches... not to mention if they pay the technicians, etc. I was reading reports that their nuclear engineers are in such dire financial straigths that for less than $500 they will take a trip to Theran for a few days to "lecture" on esoteric topics. Underpaid and demoralized engineers can indeed be a weak link on any project particulary of this complexity. I am glad they caught their problems before any disaster. Delays should be expected. Iridium got delayed and now G*... and odds are so will ICO and other competitors. Ajit. Subject: Re: Russia's Postpones Zenit-2 Again Date: Fri, Jul 10, 1998 09:00 EDT From: Readware Message-id: <1998071013000800.JAA04192@ladder03.news.aol.com> Much of what you write on the situation is correct, Ajitc. I would expect nothing less. However, you may want to entertain the possibility that the launch of the Zenit-2 involves far more than the Ukranian and Russian personnell, as I have posted a number of time here that it does. You might even want to consider the possibility that the overwhelming amount of engineering expertise on refabbing the Zenit has its origins outside of the Ukranine and Russia. I think if you entertain that possibility, and consider it informative, you might not have the concerns that you justifiably would have if in fact the Zenit launches now occurring were simply the work of underpaid satffers, however talented they are/were in the heyday of the SS18 and so on. =================