nications Services (GMPCS) market or Broadband Satellite Services (BSS). Table 2-1 indicates a few of the programs by type and market segment; Table 2-2 indicates the satellite content of some of the broadband satellite systems. Orbit Architecture Regional Global Narrowband ACeS (Asia) ECCO/Constellation Systems APMT (Asia) Ellipso ASC/Agrani (Mid-East) Globalstar EAST (Europe) Iridium Satphone (Africa) Thuraya GMPCS Systems Broadband Astrolink Spaceway SkyBridge Systems CyberStar Teledesic (BSS) Expressway Spaceway Table 2-1. Satellite Telecommunications Systems Projections for Future Space Systems [SIA98][Givens98][ITU98] Forecasting future space industry economic activity is still a black art, with no agreed baseline or standards, no complete industry definition, and potentially erroneous technical and economic assumptions. Fourth generation geostationary systems will exhibit increased nominal Satellite Communications Lead Number of System Participants Satellites Broadband Astrolink Lockheed Martin CyberStar Loral, Alcatel Expressway Hughes Spaceway Hughes Broadband Spaceway Hughes Broadband SkyBridge Alcatel, Loral Teledesic Motorola, Boeing, Gates, McCaw Table 2-2. Broadband Satellite Systems lifetime, and may exhibit increased power (up to 20,000 watts), and increased mass (up to 6,000 kg). The total mass launched to orbit is expected to double over the next five years. This increase is attributed to Big-LEO mobile systems (Globalstar, Iridium, etc.), Broadband-LEO (Skybridge, Teledesic, etc.), and Broadband-GEO (Spaceway, Astrolink, etc), with Little-LEO constellations (Orbcomm, etc) included, and government and military systems remaining flat. This growth is predicated upon the success of the initially deployed constellations within these market segments. The predictions indicate that the global commercial imaging industry will follow and complement the telecommunications industry expansion of the last twenty years. The present market for satellite remote sensing imaging is only a few hundred million doll