An artist's concept of PAS-1R in orbit. Photo: Boeing

PanAmSat Corporation says the company's latest spacecraft, the PAS-1R Atlantic Ocean Region satellite, has arrived in Kourou, French Guiana in preparation for its historic liftoff in mid November.

The deployment of PAS-1R marks a major milestone for PanAmSat as it replaces PAS-1, the communications satellite placed in orbit 12 years ago to launch the multi-billion dollar commercial international satellite communications industry. Before the launch of PAS-1 in June 1988, international satellite communications services were controlled by a global government-run satellite monopoly.

PAS-1R, when launched from the Guiana Space Center on November 14, will support PanAmSat customers with a range of powerful new transponders that will deliver video, data and Internet services to the Americas, Europe and Africa. PAS-1R will become PanAmSat's 22nd spacecraft worldwide.

The advanced PAS-1R satellite will be capable of delivering dozens of cable television channels throughout Latin America as well as broadcasting billions of bits of digital video and data throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. The spacecraft will also support PanAmSat's current and future Internet initiatives in those regions, delivering broadband U.S. backbone access to rural and remote areas and broadcasting Internet content to potentially thousands of locations simultaneously.

"PanAmSat continues to raise the standard in the delivery of communications services with the deployment of PAS-1R, which will be one of the world's most powerful commercial geostationary communications satellites ever," said R. Douglas Kahn, PanAmSat's president and chief executive officer. "The launch of PAS-1R will build on our pioneering legacy and rich history to sol idify PanAmSat's promising future, enabling the company to continue to take advantage of exciting new opportunities in numerous markets."

Upon service commencement, PAS-1R will debut with a diverse customer lineup, showcasing its ability to deliver a broad range of services throughout Latin America for video, direct-to-home, telecommunications and Internet customers. Among the customer lineup are ImpSat, Cisneros Television Group, CTC Mundo, TelefOnica Data Colombia, Citibank, Reuters, Zona Franca Montevideo, Latinet, Suratel, Vitacom and Galaxy Latin America.