Commercial Satellites to the Rescue

Commercial satellite providers can do a lot to help the government reduce costly delays and overruns that have plagued its space procurement programs, said Intelsat CEO David McGlade. Although there will always be secure satellite communications that the government wants to maintain on its own, there is still plenty of room for commercial partnerships, said McGlade during a satellite conference in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. “Those delays and cost overruns are sometimes understandable when the government is involved in cutting-edge technologies, but the vast majority of the capabilities that the US government needs can be done with firm, fixed pricing. . . . Almost all the capability the government needs can be provided by the commercial satellite industry,” he said.