Omission

  The following Utility patent was inadvertently omitted from the
September 3, 1996 Official Gazette.

                                   5,551,624
                     MEDIUM-EARTH-ALTITUDE SATELITE-BASED
                          CELLULAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Michael Horstein, Los Angeles; Peter H. Cress, Manhattan Beach; Roger
  J. Rusch, Palos Verdes Estates, all of Calif., assignors to TRW Inc.,
  Redondo Beach, Calif
Continuation of Ser. No. 134,030, Oct. 12, 1993, Pat. No. 5,439,190,
  which is a continuation in part of Ser. No. 890,510, May 28, 1992, Pat.
  No. 5,433,726, which is a continuation in part of Ser. No. 688,412, Apr.
  22, 1991, abandoned. This application May 12, 1995, Ser. No. 440,311
                              Int. Cl.6 B64G 1/10
U.S. Cl. 244--158 R                                             33 Claims

   1. A constellation of telecommunication satellites which
provides 24-hour cellular telephone communication coverage over a
predetermined latitude range around the world for a cellular transceiver
having an omni-directional antenna operating at a power level as low as
1/2 watt, comprising:
a plurality of less than 9 telecommunication satellites providing
  24-hour cellular telephone communication coverage over a predetermined
  latitude range around the world which is less than whole earth coverage,
  each of said satellites having a plurality of multibeam antennas for
  enabling simultaneous bi-directional communication links with a
  plurality of cellular-based telecommunication devices;
each of said satellites residing in one of a plurality of
  predetermined orbits, with the number of said predetermined orbits being
  different than the number of said satellites in each of said
  predetermined orbits; and
each of said predetermined orbits being related to the other
  orbits such that each of said predetermined orbits has a predetermined
  inclination angle with respect to the equator, a predetermined altitude
  of between approximately 5600 nmi and 7500 nmi, and a predetermined
  ascending node spacing between satellites in different orbital planes.