Loral Skynet Initiates Telstar 6 Service
Business Wire - March 15, 1999 15:22
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 1999--Loral Skynet
today announced that Telstar 6, its newest broadcast video and data
communications satellite, has been successfully deployed at 93 degrees
West longitude and, effective today, is in full commercial service.
Telstar 6, built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) of Palo Alto, Calif., is
one of the most sophisticated and powerful communications satellites
available to broadcasters and program distributors in North America,
covering the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, Puerto Rico,
the Caribbean, and into Canada and Latin America.
"The successful launch and initiation of service of Telstar 6 is an
important step in Loral Skynet's North American strategy," said Terry
Hart, president of Loral Skynet. "Telstar 6 significantly enhances the
strong broadcast and syndication neighborhoods already established on
the Telstar 4 and Telstar 5 satellites, and further expands the capacity of
our Loral Global Alliance."
In addition to Telstar 6, Loral's 1999 schedule includes the launches of
Orion 3 in April, Telstar 7 in June and Orion 2 later in the year, which
will extend Loral's coverage to the Asia-Pacific and Pan-American
regions, as well as Russia and South Africa.
Telstar 6 carries a total of 52 transponders -- 24 at C-band and 28 at
Ku-band. Its design is based on SS/L's three-axis, body-stabilized
FS-1300 bus, which has proven its value during more than 275 years of
cumulative on-orbit service, close to one-half of the total of 650 plus
years amassed by all SS/L satellites to date.
The satellite will generate a total of 3200 RF watts of on-board
transmitter power. Highly efficient techniques for dissipating thermal
energy and for generating and storing electricity, and lightweight
composite materials allow for a substantial increase in the spacecraft's
abilities with virtually no increase in size and weight.
Telstar 6 was launched February 15, 1999 from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard a Proton rocket manufactured by
Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Moscow,
in association with International Launch Services (ILS), a joint venture
company of Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Russian companies
Khrunichev and RSC Energia.
Loral Skynet of Bedminster, N.J., a subsidiary of Loral Space &
Communications (NYSE:LOR), is a leading satellite communications
services provider that operates the Telstar and Orion satellite fleets.
Loral Skynet's satellites provide C-band and Ku-band coverage over
the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Virgin Islands and trans-Atlantic coverage through the Orion 1 satellite.
Customers lease transponder capacity to distribute network television
programming, to collect live video feeds for the reporting of news and
events, and to offer direct-to-home and pay-per-view programming,
distance learning, educational, and other business television services.
Loral Skynet also provides technical consulting, as well as tracking,
telemetry, and control of satellite fleets for a wide variety of customers.
For more information, visit Loral Skynet's web site at
loralskynet.com.
Loral Skynet, through the Loral Global Alliance, offers its customers the
advantages of a worldwide network of satellite capacity currently on the
North American Telstar fleet, the trans-Atlantic Orion 1 satellite, on the
three-satellite Satelites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V. (SatMex) fleet, as well
as on future Europe*Star satellites. Each Alliance member provides
global satellite solutions, while focusing on the local and inter-regional
needs within its coverage regions.
Loral Space & Communications is a high technology company that
primarily concentrates on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based
services, including broadcast transponder leasing and value-added
services, domestic and international corporate data networks, global
wireless telephony, broadband data transmission and content services,
Internet services, and international direct-to-home satellite services. For
more information, visit Loral's web site at loral.com.
CONTACT: John McCarthy
+1.908.470.2347
jdm@loralskynet.com
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