It looks as if the intrepid astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour succeeded early yesterday in doing what Martin Marietta Corp failed to do in March 1990 and fired the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation’s Intelsat VI into its correct orbit: the three space walkers set a record by being out of craft for eight hours, but they succeeded in grabbing the satellite, fitting a new motor to it, and firing it; the bird went up on Marietta’s Titan III rocket, and Intelsat has been wrangling in the courts over the failure of the original launch, seeking $400m in damages; Martin Marietta riposted that Intelsat had been offered launch insurance and had knocked it back (CI No 1,506).
