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Monday June 4, 2:11 am Eastern Time
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Satellite projects, one backed by Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT - news) and the other by Hughes Electronics Corp (NYSE:GMH - news), are having trouble lining up additional sponsors, showing deteriorating funding outlook for space ventures tied to the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.
Both projects, Lockheed's Astrolink International LLC joint venture and Hughes's Spaceway effort, are quietly moving to ratchet down plans to provide Internet service via satellite, which is capable of moving data as much as 1,000 times faster than conventional phone lines, the paper said.
Citing industry officials familiar with the details, the paper said Lockheed had shrunk the proposed size of its initial satellite constellation, and both companies were considering stretching their deployment plans through to the middle of the decade.
Lockheed Martin and its Astrolink partners had decided to reduce the initial phase to four satellites from five, and that number might shrink further, the paper said.
Astrolink so far has rounded up only a third of the nearly $3.7 billion needed for the entire project, and Lockheed officials privately acknowledged that the future of the rest of the planned nine-satellite fleet was unclear, the paper said.
No new partners had signed up in 19 months, the paper said, and full-scale commercial operations were expected to commence in 2004, almost two years later than originally hoped.
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