But Mr. Martin said the wireless telecommunications industry also had an objection - in-flight calls would interfere with their ground-based networks.

An interim approach by Aircell was to utilize the existing ground-based cellular network, with highly directional antennas beamed upward.

As a result, ground-based networks have a tendency to underestimate the number of strikes, especially at the beginning of storms where cloud-to-cloud lightning is prevalent.

In addition to sending messages, the systems also automatically determine a vehicle's location, accurate to within a mile or less, using a ground-based network of beacons created for pilots.

Japan hopes to launch an orbiting radio telescope in 1996, and the observations of that instrument will be combined with those of the ground-based network.

The service provider, OnAir, uses special equipment to route calls and messages through a satellite network, which patches it into the ground-based network.

In ground-based networks, they're used to serve areas such as a building's interior where signals are weak, or to boost network capacity.

The cell phone calls are routed via satellite to the ground network and an on-board EMI screening system prevents the cell phones from attempting to contact ground-based networks.

The technology functions on Globalstar's 48-satellite system, which allows two-way communications between aircraft and a ground-based network.

Every day, this ground-based network makes an average of 45,000 sightings of orbiting objects, but 20 percent of them are of objects and debris that cannot be reliably tracked.