[SatNews] KT Corporation (KT) and Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) announced they have completed their second successful transaction in less than 12 months with the execution of the agreement for the sale and purchase of the Koreasat-3 satellite. Just a little more thn ten months earlier, KT and ABS had announced the successful completion of the sale and purchase of the Koreasat-2 satellite. The closing of the Koreasat-3 sale will occur upon the issuance of the necessary U.S. governmental approvals.

The Koreasat-3 satellite is a Lockheed Martin A2100 spacecraft launched in September of 1999. The satellite has a payload that consists of 24 x 36MHz FSS Ku-band (12 fixed and 12 steerable beams), 6 x 27 MHz BSS Ku-band and 3 x 200 MHz FSS Ka-Band transponders. Koreasat-3 will be renamed as ABS-7 as a result of this transaction.

With sufficient fuel for station-kept operations in geo-stationary orbit for an estimated six to seven years and an additional five to six years of inclined-orbit operations, ABS-7 (Koreasat-3) will provide significant high powered Ku-band and Ka-band capacities to meet ABS's customer demands for cellular backhaul, VSAT services, satellite broadband and US/NATO government requirements in the Middle East region. KT Corporation will continue to provide the satellite operations and Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) services for the ABS-7 (Koreasat-3) spacecraft at the 116 degrees East orbital slot.