Atlas V Still Seeking Customer One Year Before First Launch

The first flight of Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V is scheduled for May of 2002, but the company has not yet secured a customer for that flight. The company had hoped to have a customer lined up by the end of March, but won’t become concerned unless they do not have a customer by October.

“It's a buyer's market right now, and the buyers can drive some hard bargains…supply for launch vehicles outstrips demand two-to-one at this time,” Tom Marsh, head of Lockheed Martin Astronautics, said. “That's driven the price down ... and has reduced the margins we can get on our rockets.”

Fran Slimmer, spokeswoman for International Launch Services, a joint venture that markets the Atlas, commented, “For the customers we work with, the top priorities are scheduling assurance and reliability. Price comes in as the third factor…It's difficult to be specific about prices because every contract is different.”

Lockheed Martin has spent more than US$1 billion developing the Atlas V. Lockheed Martin's 2000 annual report states, “Continued market and pricing pressures” on the Atlas program cost Lockheed Martin Space Systems division US$85 million last year, about 20 percent of its total operating profit.

It is estimated that Boeing has spent close to US$1.5 billion developing the Delta IV. Boeing has signed a commercial customer for its first Delta IV launch, scheduled to lift off next March, two months before its first military launch, but has not announced the customer.

SPACEandTECH Digest is a weekly roundup of the latest industry news of interest to the space professional. SPACEandTECH Flash! is an internet push service offered by Andrews Space & Technology to bring the latest on orders, launches, and important breaking news to your desktop. SPACEandTECH Digest and SPACEandTECH Flash! are part of the Andrews Space & Technology www.spaceandtech.com website, a website designed to serve the information needs of the space industry.

If you would like to subscribe to the SPACEandTECH Flash! (currently a free service), contact the www.spaceandtech.com Editor-in-Chief, Joe Hopkins, at editor@spaceandtech.com