Artist's concept of Orbital's Star geostationary communications satellite. Photo: Orbital

PanAmSat Corporation on Monday announced a new multi-spacecraft agreement with Orbital Sciences Corporation for the development of the next generation of Galaxy cable satellites. Through this latest procurement plan, PanAmSat will ensure seamless services for premier entertainment companies and Galaxy anchor customers, such as ABC Cable Networks, ESPN, HBO and TBS, Inc. The plan also provides expansion capacity in the North American market for the delivery of additional PanAmSat video services.

With the important new contract, Orbital Sciences Corporation has solidified its place as a major supplier in the world market for geosynchronous orbit (GEO) communications satellites.

"Orbital Sciences' smaller geostationary satellites are an ideal match for our specific requirements. This agreement will enable PanAmSat to fulfill the long-term needs of our anchor tenants in the Galaxy cable neighborhood as well as many other top-name programmers," said R. Douglas Kahn, PanAmSat's president and chief executive officer. "The new satellites will also provide PanAmSat with additional resources to continue building networks and developing new services for the delivery of traditional media as well as emerging applications."

The procurement plan calls for Orbital Sciences to initially begin construction on one new spacecraft, designed to operate at 74 degrees west longitude. Following its launch in late 2002 or early 2003, the expansion satellite will offer 24 C-band transponders for the delivery of full-time video services.

The agreement also provides PanAmSat with the option for two additional satellites to succeed the Galaxy 5 and Galaxy 1R cable neighborhoods following their scheduled retirements in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The two satellites would each carry 24 C-band transponders to ensure seamless services for the dozens of leading cable programmers that depend on PanAmSat to deliver their content to all of the nearly 11,000 cable headends throughout the United States.

The satellite procurements will support the recent long-term agreements PanAmSat signed with ABC Cable Networks, ESPN, HBO and TBS, Inc., all of whom will continue to serve as anchor tenants on the new spacecraft. As called for in these agreements, PanAmSat will deliver the Disney Channel, ESPN, SoapNet and Toon Disney, as well as HBO, Cinemax CNN, CNNfn, CNN Headline News, CNN International, TNT, TBS Superstation, TCM, Cartoon Network and Comedy Central West through 2015.

The Galaxy cable neighborhood, which includes Galaxy 1R, Galaxy 5, Galaxy 9, Galaxy 10R and Galaxy 11, delivers nine of the top 10 cable networks in the country and nearly 100 channels in all.

David Thompson (right), Orbital's chairman and CEO, signs a contract to build three geostationary communications satellites for PanAmSat. Jim Frownfelter (left), senior VP of PanAmSat, and Mesut Ciceker (center), VP of Orbital's communications satellite group, look on. Photo: Orbital

"We are honored to be chosen by PanAmSat to build their next-generation of C-band fixed service satellites," said Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Orbital has successfully carved out a solid niche in the world's GEO satellite market with an approach that could best be summarized as 'bigger is not always better.' Orbital produces a 'right size' satellite to best fit the business needs of our customers."

"For over a decade, Orbital has been successful in applying this strategy to its family of launch vehicles and low-orbit satellites that have developed an industry-wide reputation for reliability and cost efficiency. We are now driving full speed ahead to duplicate that same level of success with our innovative GEO satellite products," Mr. Thompson added.

Dr. Ali Atia, President of Orbital's communications satellite group, said, "Perhaps as significant as the contract itself, PanAmSat's order validates Orbital's capabilities in providing smaller-size, more affordable GEO satellites at a time when much of the industry is moving toward larger and more expensive spacecraft."

Orbital is currently in various stages of building and launching several other GEO satellites for additional top-tier customers. The company recently launched and deployed the first of two new geostationary communications satellites to be delivered to Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) this year. The BSAT-2a satellite was launched into orbit on March 8 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The initial in-orbit checkout of the spacecraft has been fully successful, with all data indicating that the satellite is operating as expected. Its sister satellite, BSAT-2b, is scheduled to be launched in mid-2001.

Orbital is also working on another GEO satellite program, the N-STAR c mobile communications spacecraft for Japan's NTT DoCoMo. On that program, Orbital is partnered with Lockheed Martin Corporation, the program's prime contractor, to provide the satellite platform, perform the integration of the payload with the satellite bus, conduct pre-and post-shipment testing and arrange for launch services. Orbital expects to deliver the bus and complete most of the pre-launch testing activities prior to the end of 2001.

Orbital's GEO satellites are based on the company's "STAR" family of smaller GEO satellite platforms, which are able to accommodate most types of commercial communications payloads. For many applications, the STAR design is an attractive alternative to the larger, more costly GEO satellites offered by the industry's traditional suppliers. The STAR satellites are smaller and are significantly less expensive to build and launch. They are a perfect fit for customers in the early stages of building their business or established companies that wish to add incremental capacity to their network.