Globalstar

Globalstar is a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for satellite phone and low-speed data communications, somewhat similar to the Iridium satellite constellation and Orbcomm satellite systems.

History

The Globalstar project was launched in 1991 as a joint venture of Loral Corporation and Qualcomm. On March 24, 1994, the two sponsors announced formation of Globalstar LP, a limited partnership established in the U.S., with financial participation from eight other companies, including Alcatel, AirTouch, Deutsche Aerospace, Hyundai and Vodafone. At that time, the company predicted the system would launch in 1998, based on an investment of $1.8 billion.

Globalstar received its US spectrum allocation from the FCC in January 1995, and continued to negotiate with other nations for rights to use the same radio frequencies in their countries.

The first satellites were launched in February 1998, but system deployment was delayed due to a launch failure in September 1998 that resulted in the loss of 12 satellites in a launch by the Russian Space Agency. In February 2000, it launched the last of 52 satellites—48 satellites and four in-orbit spares. Another eight unlaunched satellites were maintained as ground spares.