An artist's concept of a Teledesic spacecraft. Photo: Teledesic

Teledesic LLC, a satellite communications services company, announced Tuesday that it has down-selected satellite manufacturers Alenia Spazio, a member company of the Finmeccanica group in Italy, and Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems of the United States as the two finalists to build Teledesic's global, broadband Internet-in-the-Sky satellite communications network.

Teledesic intends to select one prime contractor and finalize its contract this fall.

"Despite the current financial markets, we still intend to deliver on our promise of broadband connectivity on a global scale," said Dennis James, Teledesic's president. "We are confident that we can work with either of these world-class satellite manufacturers to complete and deliver an initial system that will be significantly less expensive than earlier designs."

Teledesic has been engaged in active discussions with potential domestic and international industrial partners to determine the best, most cost-effective path forward for its broadband satellite communications network. The company has received its Federal Communications Commission license and the necessary international spectrum allocation from the International Telecommunication Union to begin offering service on a global basis.

Both Alenia Spazio and Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) have experience building non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite systems. This experience, together with their existing manufacturing, integration and testing facilities and processes will reduce risk in developing and deploying a NGSO system under tight deadlines.

In addition, these prior programs enable the use of cost-effective satellite manufacturing techniques and capitalize on prior supplier relationships for manufacturing low-cost NGSO systems.

Alenia Spazio was responsible for integration and testing on the Globalstar program. It built a factory for this purpose in Rome that can be readily used for manufacturing Teledesic's satellites. Alenia Spazio has developed extensive testing procedures and processes that enable the company to build satellites in a short time period. Alenia Spazio also was the first satellite manufacturer to build commercial geostationary Ka-band satellites.

"We are confident that the present market situation will be overcome and that broadband satellite constellations will become a must in the future. We are also confident that with our past experience and current involvement Alenia Spazio can do a good job for Teledesic. We are prepared to face the stiff competition and trust that we shall become a major partner of Teledesic," said Alenia Spazio CEO Giuseppe Viriglio.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems was the supplier of the Iridium satellite bus, or chassis. LMCSS has experience in building low-cost buses for NGSO systems as well as extensive experience developing Ka-band system payloads, the "brains" of the satellite. Teledesic's satellite will operate in the high-frequency Ka-band of spectrum.

"We are pleased that Teledesic has selected Lockheed Martin to be a finalist to develop its global, broadband satellite communications system," said Ted Gavrilis, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. "Our team has the talent and experience to provide a world-class solution and we look forward to working with Teledesic on this exciting program."

Telecommunications pioneer Craig McCaw and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are Teledesic's two primary founding investors. Strategic investors also include Motorola, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, The Boeing Company and The Abu Dhabi Investment Company. Teledesic is the first licensed satellite communications network that will enable affordable, worldwide access to advanced telecommunications services such as computer networking, broadband Internet access and interactive multimedia. Teledesic will deliver broadband data and value-added services over a global network optimized for the Internet Protocol. Teledesic (pronounced "tel-eh-DEH-sic") is based in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, Washington, with offices in Brussels, Belgium; London, United Kingdom; Madrid, Spain; Ottawa, Canada; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Washington, D.C.

With experience dating back to the early 1960s, Alenia Spazio has played a primary role in the construction of the telecommunications satellites Intelsat, Hot Bird, Arabsat and Panamsat and has integrated, in less than two years, all 72 satellites of the Globalstar constellation for mobile telephony. It is prime contractor for a number of national and international programs such as Italsat, Artemis, Sicral, Atlantic Bird 1, SkyPlexNet and EuroSkyWay.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems markets, designs and builds geostationary and non-geostationary telecommunications and remote sensing satellites for customers worldwide. LMCSS is an operating unit of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, one of the core business areas of the Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT - news). Lockheed Martin has a 41-year heritage of building reliable spacecraft for commercial and military customers, having launched more than 875 spacecraft and clocking nearly 1,500 years of on-orbit performance experience.