Two satellites built by Hughes Space and Communications Co. are scheduled for launch next week nearly a half-hour apart, from sites on opposite sides of the Earth.

The spacecraft are JCSAT-5 for Japan Satellite Systems Inc. (JSAT), of Tokyo, and Astra 1G for Societe Europeenne des
Satellites (SES) of Luxembourg. Both are communications satellites, and are versions of Hughes’ popular body-stabilized HS
601 model.

The JCSAT launch is planned for 2:36 p.m. PST Tuesday, Dec. 2, aboard an Ariane 44P rocket in Kourou, French Guiana.
That translates to 7:36 p.m. Dec. 2 at the launch site and 10:36 p.m. Dec. 2 GMT.

The Astra 1G is scheduled for launch at 3:10 p.m. PST Tuesday on a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakstan.
That translates to 4:10 a.m. Dec. 3 at the launch site and 11:10 p.m. Dec. 2 GMT.

JCSAT-5 is the fifth of six satellites to be built by Hughes for JSAT. It will allow JSAT to meet increased customer demand for
multimedia, carrying voice, data and television signals between Japan and the Asia-Pacific region and Hawaii. The satellite has
32 active Ku-band transponders, and it will have more than 5 kilowatts of power at beginning of life.

Astra 1G is the fifth of seven satellites ordered by SES from Hughes. It is an HS 601HP (for high power) version, and will
expand SES’s television, radio and multimedia services throughout Europe. The spacecraft will carry a total of 32 transponders,
all active during the satellite’s first five years, with 28 active thereafter.

The satellite features state-of-the-art gallium-arsenide solar cells, which enable Astra 1G to provide 7 kilowatts of spacecraft
power. These cells, built for Hughes by Spectrolab Inc., are nearly one-and-a-half times more efficient than using traditional
silicon solar cells.

These will be the sixth and seventh launches of the year for a Hughes-built spacecraft. Two more Hughes satellites, both HS
601HP models, are scheduled for liftoff in December.

On Dec. 8, Galaxy VIII-i is scheduled to launch on an Atlas IIAS rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was built for PanAmSat
Corp., and will be used by Galaxy Latin America for DIRECTV services in Latin America. Later in the month, AsiaSat 3 will
be carried by another Proton rocket. The satellite was built for Asia Telecommunications Satellite Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong.