GLOBALSTARs M045, M042, M044, and M019 are American communications spacecraft that were launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 00:46 UT on 1999 April 15. They brought the current total to 20 of the intended 48 spacecraft fleet orbiting in eight planes. The fleet handles commmunications to/from mobile telephones worldwide. Initial orbital parameters of the first three were similar: period 104 min, apogee 950 km, perigee 920 km, and inclination 52 deg; for M019, the period was 107 min, apogee 1,188 km, perigee 1,080 km, and inclination 52 deg.
Globalstar planned 52 satellites (48 operational and 4 on-orbit spares) in Space Systems Loral's "Big LEO" global mobile communications network, offering global real time voice, data and fax. The satellites were 3-axis stabilized, and employed magnetometers on a deployable boom, sun sensors, GPS as attitude sensors, and carried two deployable solar arrays delivering 1100 W. The satellites in the first-generation constellation were designed to operate at full performance for a minimum of 7.5 years.
The satellites in the system were placed into low earth orbit in eight operational planes of six satellites each, with 1,414 kilometer circular orbits inclined at 52 degrees.
Facts in Brief
Launch Date: 1999-03-15
Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U
Launch Site: Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), Kazakhstan
Mass: 450.0 kg
Nominal Power: 1100.0 W