Orion Network Systems Hopes to Ride a Rocket to the Top
Getting there is half the fun. That's what we used to say about trips to those picturesque vacation spots that took days to reach by a combination of plane, train and bus.</br></br>If and when the folks at Orion Network Systems Inc. in Rockville get their communications satellites into orbit, they may feel the same way about their journey. It has lasted 10 years and probably won't be completed for another three or four years.</br></br>What Orion is trying to do is to put two satellites into space over the Atlantic to create direct space-to-ground links with relatively inexpensive rooftop antennas in North America and Europe. The satellites could be used to transmit voice, video, fax and computer data for businesses on both sides of the ocean.</br></br>Essentially, Orion hopes, the satellites will answer a growing corporate need for desktop-to-desktop communications that can be customed-tailored to the needs of individual businesses - especially those that operate in both the United States and Europe.</br></br>"Continued growth of international private line services will be dictated by demand from multinational organizations for high-quality networks that are reliable, flexible, affordable and designed to meet specific customer needs," Orion said last week in a stock-sale document.