Kelly Space and Technology announced October 7 it had signed an agreement with Motorola to provide 10 launches for the Iridium communication satellite project, even though the company has yet to launch a single vehicle.
     Under the agreement, KST will provide Motorola with 10 launches, each carrying two Iridium spacecraft, during the maintenance phase of the project. The estimated value of the contract is $89 million.
     "This contract marks the first time a commercial satellite company has been willing to commit to fly on an entirely new launch vehicle," said Michael Kelly, president of San Bernadino, California-based KST. "This contract is a landmark in the development of the commercial space launch industry."
     KST will use its Eclipse launch vehicle, currently under development, to launch the satellites. The unmanned reusable launcher will take off from a conventional runway as an unpowered glider, towed by a transport plane.
     "Eclipse is ideally suited to meet our needs," said Mark Borota, Vice President & General Manager, Mobile Satellite Systems Division of the Chandler Arizona-based Motorola Group. "It promises to be the most operationally efficient launch vehicle available, as well as one of the most attractively priced."
     KST plans to kick off its Eclipse development program during ceremonies at the San Bernadino airport on October 28. NASA administrator Dan Goldin and Congressman George Brown will be in attendance at the event, which will include a flyby by an F-106 aircraft that serves as an experimental demonstrator for the Eclipse.

After an unprecedented 19 years of service, 16 years longer than planned, NASA and ESA shut down the International Ultraviolet Explorer spacecraft on October 1.
     "The decision to shut down a hardy veteran like the IUE was not an easy one," sand NASA associate administrator Wes Huntress. "However, we have to balance our available budgetary resources with an increasing number of productive space science missions that require operational support."
     Launched in January 1978, the IUE has been used by over 2,000 astronomers around the world to observe everything from objects within the solar system to distant galaxies. Over 3,500 scientific articles and 500 doctoral dissertations were based on IUE data.
     Most recently, the IUE was used to observe Comet Hyakutake. IUE observations found that the comet was ejecting up to ten tons of water ice per second, and also found a small piece of the comet that broke off from the rest of the body on March 24.
     Due to NASA budget cuts, the space agency transferred its share of the IUE project to ESA one year ago, although it continued to be active in spacecraft operations through the Goddard Space Flight Center. Both agencies decided to shut the spacecraft down this year.

Workers in Russia and Florida are busy preparing two spacecraft for launch next month on missions to Mars as part of the first wave of a new era of robotic exploration of the Red Planet.
     In Florida, final preparations are underway for Mars Global Surveyor, set for launch atop a Delta II on November 6. The spacecraft arrived in Florida last month for final tests and integration with the rocket.
     In Russia, Mars96, the first Russian deep-space mission in eight years, is ready for a November 16 launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Both spacecraft will arrive at Mars in September 1997.
     Mars96 is a combination of orbiter and lander that includes a pair of penetrators that will burrow into the Martian surface. Experiments from twenty countries, including the United States, are on board the spacecraft.
     While Mars Global Surveyor is only an orbiter, it will be complemented by the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover mission. Mars Pathfinder will be launched on a faster trajectory, with launch in early December and landing on Mars on July 4, 1997.

A Boeing executive and a team of McDonnell Douglas employees won awards recently from the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for their work in space-related fields.
     James P. Noblitt, a vice president at Boeing, won the AIAA Werner von Braun Award for Excellence in Space Program Management at a ceremony during an AIAA conference in Huntsville, Alabama. The award is given annually to the person or group whose excellence in management has "significantly advanced" important space projects.
     Noblitt, vice president and general manager of the Missile and Space Division of the Boeing Space and Defense Group, was responsible for restructuring Boeing's work on the International Space Station.
     In addition, as president of Boeing Commercial Space Company, a Boeing subsidiary, Noblitt has led the innovative Sea Launch commercial launch project in cooperation with Russian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian companies.
     McDonnell Douglas's Delta launch vehicle team won the AIAA's George M. Low Space Transportation Award in early October. Named for a key player in the Apollo program, the award is presented every other year to those who have made outstanding contributions in space transportation.
     The Delta team was commended for its "achievement of making the Delta the most reliable U.S. Launch Vehicle," according to the award citation. Altogether, 224 of 237 Delta launches since 1960 have been a success.