Nov 27 1978
From The Space Library
The U.S. Postal Service would soon begin a 1yr test of an electronic message service system that would reduce letters to electronic impulses, relay them to their destination by satellite, reconvert them to letter form using high-speed printers, and deliver them by regular carriers, Defense/Space Daily reported. If the test was successful, the agency could offer electronic mail services in up to 10 cities within 3yr. The initial test would send messages by satellite from one room in a Postal Service facility in Rockville, Md., to another room in the facility.
A $2.3 million RCA study of the electronic message service system had concluded that it would cost the Postal Service 10 to 11 cents to deliver this kind of mail, a price equal to or less than present costs. RCA suggested that the system could be used within 6 to 8yr for up to one-fourth of the 100 billion letters sent through the U.S. mails annually and estimated it would cost the Postal Service $2 billion to install the system in 87 cities around the U.S. (DISD, Nov 27/78, 120)
Av Wk reported that Europe's aerospace industry would probably get a sizable slice of procurements for the emerging global maritime satellite communications system (variously designated as the second-generation system, the Marisat 2 system, or the pre-Inmarsat system). Great Britain's ambassador Peter Jay and France's ambassador Francois de Laboulaye had made strong representations on Europe's behalf to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher. The fact that all prime contracts (and most of the dollar volume of procurement) for the first global satellite communications system, owned and operated by INTELSAT, had gone to U.S. firms had been a sore point in U.S.-Europe relations for more than a decade. ESA's Marecs satellite scheduled for launch on an Ariane booster would figure in both plans for the new global system that had received most-favored consideration, as U.S. government agencies (led by the State Dept.) and ComSatCorp struggled to formulate a U.S. position. One plan favored by the U.S. for the interim system was to combine maritime communications packages on three Ford Aerospace-built INTELSAT 5 satellites with two or three Marecs satellites. The other favored plan was to combine commercial communications packages on the Leasat system being established by Hughes Communications Services, Inc. for the U.S. Navy with two or three Marecs satellites. (Av Wk, Nov 27/78, 13)
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