ASM
Another Launch Delay Lowers Profits for GeoEye
Just one week prior to its target launch date, GeoEye has announced that the launch of its high-resolution commercial imaging satellite, GeoEye-1, will be delayed yet again. There are conflicting reports regarding the reason.
The launch was originally expected in 2007, then moved to April 2008. It was then postponed again to 22 August. On 15 August, the company announced that the 22 August launch date had been rescheduled to 4 September.
Geoeye said that United Launch Alliance, the company responsible for organising the rocket, had initiated the change after a support aircraft ‘unexpectedly became unavailable’.
The aircraft was required to support receipt of down-range telemetry from ULA's Delta II booster after the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
However, ULA told the Washington Post that the delay was caused by a Pentagon spy satellite being given higher priority ‘for national security purposes’. The Post also reported that GeoEye’s chief executive Matthew M. O'Connell ‘expressed frustration with the decision’. He was quoted as saying: ‘We're certainly a lot smaller and since [the United Launch Alliance] are the only guys in town, they don't have to be very responsive to commercial launches.’
In another setback for the company, GeoEye has announced that its earning statements for 2005, 2006 and 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 will be delayed for up to two weeks.
The company said it needed to recalculate penalties and interest related to payments received under a $500-million cost-sharing program with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Again, the Post had a slightly different story. It reported that GeoEye would be lowering profit for the period 2005 through 2007 by $31 million. It said that GeoEye’s failure to launch the GeoEye-1 satellite on time in April had caused 'a major government customer' to cut back on its orders. It was these reductions by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which sharply lowered GeoEye's sales and profit in the quarter ending June 30.
The NGA supplies satellite imagery to the spy agencies and the Pentagon.
In addition, the Post pointed out that GeoEye’s shares fell sharply after the launch delay in April. Its share price fell again by 69 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $23.84, after the 15 August annoucement of its second launch delay.
The latest reports from GeoEye are that launch preparations are proceeding smoothly. The satellite was lifted onto and mated with the Delta II launch vehicle on 18 August at Space Launch Complex 2W.
