Russian Rocket Launches Communications Satellite Sextet

PARIS — Six Orbcomm two-way messaging satellites successfully were placed into orbit June 19 aboard a Russian Cosmos 3M rocket operating from Russia's Kapustin Yar spaceport, according to the launch services provider, Cosmos Space Systems AG of Germany and Russia.

Ft. Lee, N.J.-based Orbcomm Inc. will be integrating the satellites into its existing in-orbit fleet of 29 satellites in the coming weeks. In addition to buttressing Orbcomm's existing machine-to-machine communications service, the new spacecraft will permit the start of a new service for the U.S. Coast Guard called Automatic Identification System (AIS). The AIS payload delivers information on vessels in or near U.S. coastal waters that are equipped with AIS terminals.

The six satellites were built by a U.S.-Russian-German team including Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., which provided the satellites' electronics payload; Polyot of Omsk, Russia, which built the satellites' platform; and OHB System of Bremen, Germany, which integrated the platforms and payloads and performed pre-launch testing.

Polyot also arranged for the Cosmos 3M launch services as part of its Cosmos Space Systems joint venture with OHB System.

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