When Jim protested that the use of an incorrect date was clearly unethical,
Fred said, “Look Jim, no satellite has ever been launched on time. Everyone, including our
competitors, publishes very aggressive launch dates. Customers understand the tentative nature
of launch schedules. In fact, it is so common that customers factor into their plans the likelihood
that spacecraft will not be launched on time. If we provided realistic dates, our launch
dates would be so much later than those published by our competitors that we would never be
able to sell any advanced contracts. So do not worry about it, just use the published date and
we will revise it in a few months.”