Business Notes Satellites

A brand-new, high-tech business blasted off in the U.S. last week: satellite launching. Martin Marietta, which manufactures Titan-class rockets for the Air Force, signed an agreement with Federal Express to send aloft its ExpressStar communications satellite in 1989. President Reagan had opened the way for the new industry last month, when he an- nounced that NASA will drastically reduce the number of commercial cargoes carried aboard the space shuttle.

Martin Marietta hopes for a big share of the estimated $1 billion annual launching market that the European Space Agency has virtually had to itself since January's shuttle tragedy. But others are eyeing the pie. Among them: General Dynamics, which has built Atlas-class rockets, and McDonnell Douglas, the maker of Delta boosters.