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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Globalstar Telecommunications Limited GSAT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dragonfly who wrote (3942)	4/17/1999 7:51:00 PM
From: Rocket Scientist	Respond to of 29987

DFly, last year Intelsat retired its oldest Intelsat V spacecraft (built by SS/L nee Ford Aerospace) which was launched in late 1980 with a design life of 7 years. So the useful life of a spacecraft can often be much higher than the design life. It's partly luck, partly launch vehicle performance (typically the on board tanks are loaded to compensate for 2-3 sigma under performance of the launch vehicle--if the l/v gives you a good ride, the satellite life can be substantially longer). Of course, plenty of satellites that were supposed to last 15 years failed early in life--that's why insurance is expensive. As an investor, I do consider it a discriminator in G*s favor that its constellation will apparently be depreciated over a 7.5 year period compared to five years for Iridium. Regards, RS