I do not wish to duplicate that which was designed in 1980 for a complete different era. The phase 3 program is an engineering marvel. It is essentially one man's absolute genius (Karl) incarnated and captured to varying degrees by the rest of us as the supporting cast. But I do not believe it is appropriate for 2010-2020 given the launch environment, the RF environment, and the legal environment. The frame is too small to support the antennas required to use multiple satellites even to support 7/24 operations. We need a larger frame to support the phased arrays to meet the 70% availability and on and on and on.

Ok that makes sense. How does the size of P3E compare to AO-40? Could we design a larger version of the P3E spaceframe that would fit into the mounting ring used for AO-40? if so would that give us a bird large enough to do what you think needs to be done, for the future needs of the sat community? We know that the P3E (AO10/13) shape seemed to work as I hope P3E will also work. Would not a large version work on the same principals?

Les W4SCO