Four Satellites to Launch in October

Globalstar is planning a launch on October 21 of the remaining 4 satellites that are to finish the replacement of eight satellites that had not been functioning.  The first four satellites were sent into space on May 30, 2007.  These should come on line by the end of August.  Once the remaining four are sent into space it will take approximately 2 months for these to align into the system.  Globalstar is hoping to patch some of the gaps that the service is providing at this time.  These satellites will be riding the Soyuz, Fregat and will be launch in Russia. The Soyuz, the most recognizable Russian rocket, is only one of several space boosters, which derived from the R-7 ballistic missile developed in the mid-1950s.  “Formally, the development of the Fregat upper stage started in 1992 in conjunction with the Rus project, envisioning a series of upgrades of the Soyuz rocket family. The Fregat was expected to serve as a fourth (upper) stage of the Soyuz-2 rocket, delivering payloads from low "parking" orbits into various high-altitude orbits or sending planetary probes into deep space. Potentially, the Fregat could be adapted to serve as the third stage of the Soyuz rocket, instead of Block I stage, to form Vostok-2/Fregat booster. In such configuration, the rocket could launch cargo into low- and mid-altitude orbits, as well as into sun-synchronous orbits.”

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