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

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (4771)	10/27/1998 2:26:00 PM
From: Rocket Scientist	Respond to of 10852

I'm not sure what the current angst is with respect to Loral's L/V selection. OK, in hindsight the Zenit was carrying too many eggs for G*s good, but the basic selection of the L/V was not particularly imprudent nor was Loral alone in making a big bet on it (look at Boeing and SeaLaunch which uses the same booster.) The upcoming launchers are not particularly "unproven" in a technology field that's constantly evolving. The "new" Russian engines on Atlas III were selected-by Lockheed Martin and the USAF, not just Loral-based on performance, cost and reliability and actually have a lot of heritage. The Delta 3 flight for Orion was in all likelihood selected by GMH under its contract with Orion that predates Loral's acquisition of Orion. The sad fact is that US launch vehicles without recent upgrades are not capable of providing decent life for modern geo spacecraft or are hideously expensive and not that reliable (i.e. Titan) So all the sat manufacturers, not just Loral, are going with upgraded Deltas and Atlases plus a lot of foreign L/Vs. I don't find any foundation for an assertion that Loral or Schwartz were/are "reckless" in picking L/Vs.

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (4771)	10/27/1998 9:25:00 PM
From: Bernard Levy	Respond to of 10852

Are you telling us that SS/L will never bid on any government satellite contract? If not, LOR will need good relations with both political parties. I never imagined that LOR stock ownership could ever be viewed as a political statement. If Mr. Schwartz can't tone down his political activities, may be he should run for office and let someone else manage the company.

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (4771)	10/27/1998 10:11:00 PM
From: HIA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Oh yeah...Loral Corporation merged with Lockheed Martin...and Loral Space & Communications was the spin-off not included in the merger... I don't think that there is full appreciation for all of the things that are happening in the satellite industry at the moment...For instance...Lockheed is buying Comsat for 1/2 share of Lockheed to 1 share of Comsat...Comsat has partnership interests in Intelsat and Inmarsat (including expense share and revenue share)...Intelsat is spinning off a private company next month called Blue Skies Satellites and then that company is going IPO in the spring...Inmarsat is going IPO in the spring...and...the future merger of Comsat with Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications will itself be a future spin-off from Lockheed Martin...as another IPO! Not to mention Iridium, PanAmSat, Lockheed's existing satellite ventures, or Loral's ventures not related to the high profile mobile telecommunications system that is going up...or the planned Teledesic system...(Which brings up the question...are the existing high-orbit systems going to use IPO funds to put up new generation high-orbit satellites or are they going to use the IPO funds to add low-orbit satellites to their existing systems?)...