General Dynamics Gets Satellite-Shot Contract

General Dynamics’ San Diego-based Space Systems Division has won a contract to build an Atlas I rocket that will carry a General Electric satellite into orbit next spring from Cape Canaveral, the companies said Wednesday.

General Dynamics spokesman Jack Isabel declined to state the contract’s dollar value, but industry sources said Wednesday that General Dynamics’ Space Systems Division and its Commercial Launch Services division charge $50 million to $60 million to build and launch an Atlas I.

The General Electric contract won’t generate many new jobs at the General Dynamics’ Space Systems Division in San Diego, which has 4,900 employees, Isabel said. However, the contract provided a boost for General Dynamics, which is one of several U.S. and foreign companies competing for a share of the growing commercial launch business.

General Dynamics’ commercial launch program uses technology derived from the Atlas rocket program, which the U.S. Air Force and NASA have used to place more than 400 satellites into orbit since the booster was developed in 1957.

General Dynamics now holds contracts for 24 commercial launches, and has options for eight more, Isabel said. The Space Systems Division hopes to eventually win contracts for as many as 60 commercial rockets.

General Dynamics successfully completed its first commercial launch on July 25 at Cape Canaveral. A second commercial launch is scheduled for early next year at Cape Canaveral, Isabel said. Besides the 24 commercial rocket launch orders, General Dynamics is under contract to build and launch 10 Atlas II rockets for the Air Force.

The July 25 launch placed a U.S. Air Force-NASA Combined Radiation and Release Effects Satellite into orbit. The General Electric contract announced Wednesday calls for General Dynamics to place in orbit a television signal transmitter satellite.

McDonnell Douglas’ Huntington Beach-based Space Systems Co. has successfully launched five commercial versions of its Delta booster. The company’s next commercial Delta booster launch is scheduled Oct. 19, McDonnell Douglas spokeswoman Anne McCauley said Wednesday. The company has contracts to launch seven more commercial rockets, McCauley said.

Bethesda, Md.-based Martin Marietta’s Astronautics Group has successfully launched three commercial versions of its Titan 3 booster, spokesman Elliott Miller said Wednesday. The company has “one commercial flight outstanding . . . and, through 1995, we have 49 (military) contracts.”

Arianespace, a European consortium that conducted its first commercial launch in 1980, has successfully completed 38 commercial launches. It holds contracts to launch 37 more satellites, a Washington-based spokeswoman said.