Space Systems/Loral to Build PanAmSat’s Galaxy 18 Satellite; Completes DirecTV-8 Two Months Early

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 24/Satnews Daily/ — Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) announced on Wednesday it has been selected by PanAmSat Corp. to build Galaxy 18, a new Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) satellite that will deliver 10 kilowatts of power over a 15-year lifetime.

The satellite's hybrid communications payload will carry a total of 48 operating transponders, including 24 high-power Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders, SS/L said. The satellite is designed to operate from PanAmSat's 123 degrees West orbital location.

The contract is subject to standard bankruptcy court approval.

When delivered in 2007, Galaxy 18 will become PanAmSat's newest satellite covering the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, in addition to Canada and Mexico, and will be the fifth spacecraft built for PanAmSat by SS/L. Galaxy 16 is also under construction at SS/L's facility in Palo Alto, California and is planned for delivery in 2006, according to Space Systems/Loral.

The satellite is based on SS/L's 1300, geostationary satellite platform. Currently, there are 48 SS/L 1300 satellites on orbit, performing a variety of critical communications functions.

SS/L also announced the successful completion of the assembly, integration and tests of the DirecTV 8 satellite, more than two months ahead of the contracted schedule. This progress was capped recently by the successful completion of the pre-shipment readiness reviews held in Palo Alto, Calif.

The DirecTV 8 satellite, built for the DirecTV Group, Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., is a high power Ku/Ka-band hybrid satellite. The satellite's primary mission is to maintain high quality, high power DBS service to existing DirecTV customers. The Ka-band payload will improve DirecTV's ability to collect and deliver high quality television programming.

Jim Butterworth, senior vice president, communication systems, DirecTV, Inc. said he is impressed by the speed at which the satellite was done. "This is almost unheard of in the satellite industry and is emblematic of SS/L's demonstrably improved manufacturing processes," he said.

C. Patrick DeWitt, president, Space Systems/Loral, said the DirecTV 8 program was the first to fully benefit from the process improvements SS/L has developed and put in place.

The DirecTV 8 satellite will provide selectable medium and high power Ku- band broadcast services to the U.S. on up to 32 transponders. The service is optimized to support the current and next generation higher coding rate services that DirecTV provides. The Ka-band payload will use the full 1,000 MHz of Ka-band communications bandwidth available to link DirecTV facilities as part of DirecTV's dramatic infrastructure development for the upcoming launch of local digital and high definition services in the Ka-band.

The satellite is designed to provide almost 8,500 watts of DC power at the end of its 15-year mission life and will weigh less than 3,800 kilograms at separation from the Proton launch vehicle. The satellite will remain in Palo Alto until it is time to ship the satellite to the launch site for integration with the Proton launch vehicle.

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