Communications Satellite Corporation

Product Details

Historical Context

COMSAT Corporation was created by the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 and incorporated as a publicly traded company in 1963. The primary goal of COMSAT was to serve as a public, federally funded corporation intended to develop a commercial and international satellite communication system press. Although the corporation was government regulated, it was equally owned by some major communications corporations and independent investors. COMSAT began operations with its headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1962, with a six-person founding board of directors appointed by President John F. Kennedy, including: Phil Graham who served as Chairman (until his resignation in January 1963); Leo D. Welch, Joseph V. Charyk, David M. Kennedy, George Killion, Leonard H. Marks, and Bruce Sundlun.

In August 1964, COMSAT helped create the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT), an international satellite organization with the goal of global satellite coverage that today has 143 member countries and signatories. COMSAT was responsible for the launching of the Early Bird communications satellite, on April 6, 1965.

To further satellite technology, in September 1969, COMSAT opened COMSAT Laboratories, a research and development arm, in Clarksburg, Maryland. The founding director of COMSAT Labs was Bill Pritchard from 1969 to 1973. He was followed by Burton Edelson, director from 1973 to 1982. Dr. Ramesh K. Gupta, director from 1995 to 2000.

Following many open inquiries into ongoing disagreements with major broadcasting companies and COMSAT, the FCC created the Open Skies Policy in June 1972. This policy authorized the use of satellites for domestic broadcast use and encouraged competition between different systems. In 1976, COMSAT deployed Marisat, three geosynchronous satellite systems providing mobile services to the United States Navy and other maritime customers, and Comstar, a domestic satellite system. To separate these activities from its INTELSAT business as required by the Federal Communications Commission, a subsidiary company named Comsat General was formed. In 1982, the Marisat satellites, along with three Marisat Earth stations (two in the US — Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California — and one in Japan) formed the initial operating system for the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT).

COMSAT provided 2-way communication via geostationary satellite for a number of cruise ships in Caribbean and other offshore applications. The ship on-board system included antenna stabilized with 3-axis gimbals, beacon signal receiver and an active control system to search and lock the antenna on the satellite during the ship maneuvers and severe waves. The system called Startrack was developed by the Canadian company Techwest Data Systems. In 1995, the system was acquired by the UK Marine Data Systems for their floating rigs operations in the North Sea and in 1996 manufacturing moved to Aberdeen, Scotland.

On September 20, 1998, Lockheed Martin Corp. and COMSAT Corp jointly announced a two-phase merger agreement valued at approximately $2.7 billion, contingent upon certain FCC rulings and Congressional legislative accommodations. Upon completion of the transaction, COMSAT would become an integral element of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, a recently formed wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp. Phase 1 of the transaction was completed via a $49.50 per share purchase of approximately 49% of COMSAT common stock in September 1999, and phase 2 via a one-for-one tax-free exchange of Lockheed Martin common stock for the remaining 51% of COMSAT common stock (approximately 27.5 million shares) in August 2000, at which time the Lockheed Martin stock (NYSE: LMT) was trading at approximately $28.50 per share.

On August 2, 2000, the COMSAT ticker symbol CQ was removed from the New York Stock Exchange.

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