"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:InAge.1551$1f5.1545@trndny01...
wrote:

Please tell us about some of them.

The big hitter is Ariane in France. They've been launching since 1980 and
currently put up more than half the satellites launched every year. They
just signed a deal with the Russian space agency, which will allow them to
use the Soyuz infrastructure.

Messerschmitt made a stab at it at about the same time, but I'm not sure
they every got operational. They were planning to build launch facilities
in Africa.

Then there's International Launch Services, which is a joint venture of
Lockheed Martin and Russian rocket builder Khrunichev State Research and
Production Space Center. They were formed in 1995.

Sea Launch was also formed in 1995 and made their first commercial lift in
1999. They launch from platforms in the ocean to get around having to deal
with NASA to use land bases in the U.S..

Boeing is also getting into the act with their Delta system.

And if you need to put up something really massive, there are several
companies in Russia who have access to updated military launch facilities,
and, of course, the Russian government will be happy to help you as well.

Launches planned for the next few months may be viewed at
http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking . As you can see, there are 40
scheduled. One is NASA. A few others are U.S. military.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

George,

Thanks for all the good info. Do you happen to know what level of
investment the private weather companies have made in there own satellites?
Would you make a guess about whether, if the NWS ceased to exist, these guys
be able to make enough money to the NWS data?

This seems to be the crux of the issue to me. If the NWS budget a few years
from now could be slashed and/or replaced with less expensive and better
private sources, then I would think this bill is a good idea. No one seems
to be promoting it this way though.

BTW who thinks that the french Ariane company is not HUGELY subsidized?
Raise your hands.

PS I have a picture of your Sig on a resturaunt billboard if you want it.