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OrbComm Ships Eight For September Launch
Dulles Va - August 21, 1998 - The next eight OrbComm LEO data and messaging satellites have been shipped from Orbital Sciences' Germantown manufacturing plant in Maryland to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The eight new satellites, scheduled for launch in late September aboard Orbital's Pegasus(R) rocket, will complete OrbComm's initial 28-satellite constellation. Once they are placed into service two to three months after the launch, OrbComm will offer full commercial service in the United States. In a flawless mission conducted on August 2, Orbital launched eight OrbComm satellites into a low-Earth orbit approximately 510 miles above the Earth. Those satellites have successfully completed their early in-orbit check-out procedures and are performing just as expected. As a result of data gathered from initial testing, the team of Orbital and OrbComm engineers has already begun the second, more extensive in-orbit testing and is well ahead of schedule in the spacecraft check-out process. The engineering team has determined that each of the eight recently launched satellites is reliably generating the full electrical power levels for which they are designed, and that all solar arrays are properly deployed and are accurately tracking the sun. In addition, all eight satellites have consistently been in communications with OrbComm's ground network in the U.S., managed by the Network Control Center located in Dulles, Virginia. OrbComm will deploy a plane of eight additional satellites over the equator in mid-1999, bringing the constellation to 36 LEO satellites, which will enhance service in the world's equatorial regions and increase the overall system capacity. OrbComm is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate a constellation of up to 48 satellites, though launch plans for the additional 12 satellites have not been finalized. OrbComm provides two-way monitoring, tracking and messaging services through the world's first low-Earth orbit satellite-based data communications system. OrbComm applications include monitoring of fixed assets such as electric utility meters, oil and gas storage tanks, wells and pipelines and environmental projects; tracking of mobile assets such as commercial vehicles, trailers, rail cars, heavy equipment, fishing vessels, barges and government assets; and messaging services for consumers and commercial and government entities.
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