Orbital Sciences announced Thursday it has received a $17 million contract from its subsidiary ORBCOMM Inc. to supply six data communications satellite payloads. The contract also includes options for two additional payload sets. If exercised, the options would bring the total contract value to $21.5 million, the company said in a statement.
Orbital is scheduled to complete the delivery of the six initial payloads by mid-2007 and will construct the packages at its satellite-manufacturing facility in Dulles.
During the 1990s, Orbital designed, developed, built and deployed ORBCOMM's global network of satellites – now numbering 30 – as well as ground systems and a data-messaging distribution network, based on the company's proprietary smaller-sized space systems.
The in-orbit satellites, which have lasted beyond their original five-year to seven-year design lifetimes, are due for generational upgrades. The new communications payloads are designed to provide those upgrades, the Orbital statement said.
