Loral Wins Contract For Twin Birds At DirecTV

SPACEMART

Loral Wins Twin Bird Deal At DirecTV

plenty of smiles at Loral this week

Palo Alto - Oct 02, 2003
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications announced Monday that DirecTV, Inc., El Segundo, Calif., has issued SS/L authorizations to proceed (ATPs) with the design and construction of two satellites: DirecTV 8 and DirecTV 9S. Aggregate revenue for the construction of the two satellites will be in excess of $220 million.

"DirecTV's award represents Loral's second and third orders for commercial satellite construction this year and a total of 14 for the industry -- a positive indicator of a resurgence in satellite manufacturing sales," said Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer of Loral Space & Communications.

"For Loral, the orders are a significant step forward in the execution of our business plan under the reorganization process. As satellite operators resume their normal procurement patterns, we believe SS/L will benefit as the preferred provider of the most advanced and most reliable commercial communications satellites available anywhere. We are most appreciative of DirecTV's confidence in SS/L's ability to provide state-of-the-art satellites for its mission critical applications."

The ATPs have been submitted for approval by the Bankruptcy Court.

DirecTV 8, to be delivered in the late first quarter of 2005, will provide national coverage from the 101 degrees West longitude orbital slot, DirecTV's primary orbital slot.

The satellite will also be able to operate from DirecTV's orbital slots at 110 and 119 degrees West longitude. The satellite will carry 16 high-power transponders for high-quality national digital video services.

DirecTV 9S, scheduled for delivery in the late second quarter of 2005, is designed to operate from orbital locations at 101 degrees West longitude or 119 degrees West longitude.

As a back-up for DirecTV's 4S and 7S satellites, it will be capable of providing up to 54 transponders for high-quality local and national digital video service broadcast into 27 beams. In an alternate configuration, the satellite will be capable of providing up to 44 transponders broadcast into 30 beams.

"We selected SS/L to design and manufacture these two advanced satellites because it was best able to meet our schedule and technical requirements," said Jim Butterworth, senior vice president, Communications Systems, DirecTV, Inc.

"These spacecraft will provide DirecTV with additional capacity and back- up capabilities as we continue to build out our network to provide additional services to our customers that will include more local channel markets and high-definition programming. We're confident in SS/L's ability to deliver in accordance with our agreed upon specifications."

With the completion of DirecTV 8 and DirecTV 9S, Loral will have manufactured five -- more than half -- of the satellites in DirecTV's fleet. SS/L is currently building DirecTV 7S, a high-power, spot-beam satellite scheduled for launch in mid to late first quarter of 2004.

DirecTV 8 and DirecTV 9S are based on SS/L's space-proven 1300 satellite platform, which has an excellent record of reliable operation. The geostationary 1300 has a designed service life of 15 years and maintains station-keeping and orbital stability by using bipropellant propulsion and momentum management systems.

A system of high efficiency solar arrays and lightweight batteries provides uninterrupted electrical power. In all, SS/L satellites have amassed more than 1000 years of on-orbit service.

SPACEMART

Sky Reaches Seven Million Subscriber Target Early

London - Oct 01, 2003
British Sky Broadcasting Group says it has already achieved its target of seven million direct-to-home ("DTH") satellite subscribers by the end of calendar year 2003, three months early.

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