2nd Jul 2014 16:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Inmarsat PLC Wednesday said that it has appointed SpaceX to provide launch services for its S-band satellite and up to two further Inmarsat missions.
In a statement, Inmarsat said it expects to use the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, but will retain the possibility of using a Falcon 9 as an alternative, providing further launch flexibility.
"We believe that SpaceX has demonstrated tremendous successful progress in its launch capabilities and is now a fully-credible provider of vehicles to support geostationary missions," Chief Executive Rupert Pearce said in a statement.
"In view of capacity constraints in the satellite launch market, Inmarsat believes that securing optionality today is an important business safeguard to mitigate future launch schedule risk," Pearce added.
The news comes after Inmarsat said in June that it had plans to deploy an S-band payload on a satellite jointly owned and funded by Hellas-Sat. On Wednesday, Inmarsat said that Hellas-Sat will jointly and equally fund the cost of the SpaceX launch vehicle, in connection with the SpaceX agreement.
Inmarsat said that the cost of the launch vehicle will come under the previously reported USD200 million set aside for the programme, including build, launch, insurance and operations.
In October 2013 the company announced the purchase of a fourth Inmarsat-5 satellite from Boeing as a spare satellite. It Wednesday said that it has secured a SpaceX launch vehicle in order to ensure launch availability for mid-2016.
"This will provide certainty as to launch date and cost when a decision is made to launch the fourth Inmarsat-5, either as a replacement satellite or as a fourth satellite with an incremental Ka-band business case," Inmarsat said.
In addition, Inmarsat and SpaceX agreed terms for a third launch vehicle opportunity that can be used for other future missions, including potentially for the launch of an Inmarsat-6 generation satellite. Inmarsat said that the Inmarsat-6 satellites have not yet been designed or ordered and a first launch is targeted only towards the end of the decade.
"In relation to the launch options announced today, Inmarsat will make some limited payments before the end of the year which will be captured within updated capital expenditure guidance to be provided with the second quarter results in August," Inmarsat said.
Inmarsat shares Wednesday closed at 750.5 pence, down 0.8%.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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