TerreStar reiterates need to delay MSS launch

TerreStar Networks Inc. defended its request to the Federal Communications Commission to delay its mobile satellite launch, claiming that the 10-month postponement “is in the public interest.”
The Reston, Va.-based firm in late May asked the FCC for permission to extend the launch of the planned 2 GHz mobile satellite service until September 2008, citing a need to accommodate manufacturing and delivery issues of its satellite suppler, Space Systems/Loral Inc. But Inmarsat Global Ltd. last week said TerreStar was seeking “fundamental changes” to the system just months prior to launch, claiming the proposed changes raise “serious questions about the relationship between the timing of these voluntary design choices and TerreStar’s inability to meet its upcoming November 2007 launch milestone.”
TerreStar, a majority-owned subsidiary of Motient Corp., responded in a letter to the FCC claiming it has made “substantial progress” both in the construction of its satellite and in the construction and implementation of supporting terrestrial facilities. The company said Inmarsat failed to provide legal or factual basis for denying the delay request, and claimed once again that the speedbumps in construction are outside of its control.
“As TerreStar’s satellite nears completion and ground work continues on a system that will provide essential first-responder communications services that this country so desperately needs, it cannot seriously be suggested that the public, or the public interest, would be served by denying the launch milestone extension that has been requested,” according to the document. “None of the commenting parties could contend otherwise.”