Teledesic has apparently responded to recent negative coverage in the trade press by releasing outline details of a launch contract concluded last week with Internatinonal Launch Services (ILS), the US-Russian partnership in which Lockheed Martin is the American partner.

No date is indicated for the six launches said to be firmly contracted. Three will be on Russian Proton-Ms and three on the new Lockheed Martin vehicle, Atlas V, which will be powered by Russian RD-180 engines. This is the first commercial contract for Atlas 5, which will also be the basis for Lockheed Martin’s Enhanced Expendable Launch Vehicle. A further five launches are under option on each launcher.

Beyond saying that the launches will be "multiple", there is not yet any indication of how many satellites will be carried on each one. Teledesic says that "it is evaluating other vehicles", suggesting that ILS will not necessarily have a monopoly. Boeing, which is a $100 million Teledesic investor, could still have a look-in with one or more of its Delta series.

This lack of precision reflects the fact that Teledesic has not yet decided on its system architecture, or at least not revealed it. Consequently, no-one knows how many satellites will be required, or how big each will be. Recently some commentators have been talking of as few as "about 100 satellites". Presumably these would have to be considerably larger.

Teledesic is adamant that the system will remain a LEO constellation, and there is "no possibility" of its merging with any GEO rival, such as Hughes’ Spaceway or Lockheed Martin’s Astrolink. Whether these (or others) will also have LEO components remains open. This means that Teledesic is committed to global coverage, unlike Spaceway which is starting with North American coverage only.

Reciprocal money movements between between Teledesic and its prime contractor involve a $250 million down-payment by Teledesic to Motorola for its prime contractor work, and a reverse $150 million cash payment by Motorola to Teledesic as part of its investment in the system, which will total $750 million. Teledesic now holds over $1.5 billion in equity investment.

Motorola’s Doug Toll believes that his company is capable of meeting Teledesic’s requirements, and that the programme "has now moved into a more positive phase", following a long period of inaction. Industry scepticism has been compounded by the fact that both Motorola itself and named contractor Matra Marconi Space (set to build satellite structures) had taken their teams off the project. This was understandable, since it had not yet been decided exactly what they were to be building.