spacetoday.net: Boeing restarts work on ICO satellites

Posted: Wed, Aug 20, 2003, 1:37 PM ET (1737 GMT)
Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS) has restarted work on ten communications satellites for ICO Global, Space News reported online Tuesday. Dave Ryan, vice president and general manager of BSS, said that ICO authorized BSS to continue assembly of the satellites several weeks ago. The satellites were ordered several years ago, but work on them had been suspended in the wake of ICO's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing four years ago and subsequent reorganization. The satellites are in various stages of assembly from fully completed to having only basic subsystems assembled. Ryan said delivery of the first spacecraft is planned for 2005. ICO did not offer comment on the status of its plans to deploy its satellite constellation. ICO currently has one satellite in orbit, launched in 2001; its FCC license requires it to have at least two satellites in medium Earth orbit by January 2005 and the full constellation of ten satellites in place by July 2007.