Loral's Orion 2 Communications Satellite Successfully Launched; High-powered Capacity Now Available to Serve Europe and the Americas - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Oct 25, 1999

Loral Space & Communications announced Tuesday that its Orion 2 satellite was successfully launched tonight at 2:22 a.m. EDT on an Ariane 44 LP rocket, from Arianespace's Kourou, French Guiana spaceport.

Built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), Orion 2 features 36 high-powered Ku-band transponders. It will be launched into the orbital slot located at 15 degrees west longitude, where in-orbit testing will be conducted. Loral is currently in negotiations with Eutelsat, also a satellite services provider, to complete coordination of the Orion 2 satellite with the Eutelsat spacecraft in the region.

"The addition of Orion 2 to our fleet brings to ten the number of satellites in the Loral Global Alliance's growing fleet, significantly expanding our capacity and reach," said Terry Hart, president, Loral Skynet. "This new satellite will help fill the fast-growing demand for data capacity for businesses and Internet Service Providers on four continents."

From its position in the orbital arc, Orion 2 will significantly expand Loral Skynet`s existing satellite capacity across the Atlantic, covering all of Europe - from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains - as well as South America and the east coast of North America. In addition, the satellite will deliver spot beam coverage of South Africa.

The Orion 2 is expected to enter service in late December after orbit raising and in-orbit testing, are complete. Loral Skynet will manage the leasing of Orion 2's capacity.

The 10,600 watt satellite is based on SS/L`s flight-proven, three-axis, body-stabilized 1300 bus, whose modular design has proven its worth during some 300 years of cumulative on-orbit service, nearly half the total of 700 plus years amassed by all SS/L satellites to date.

SS/L's 1300 buses are designed to achieve long useful orbital life -- in this case 15 years -- through use of a bipropellant propulsion system and a momentum-bias system for excellent station-keeping and orbital stability. Solar arrays and nickel-hydrogen batteries provide uninterrupted electrical power,

Loral Skynet of Bedminster, N.J., is a leading satellite communications services provider that operates and manages the leasing of capacity on the Telstar and Orion satellite fleets and on the recently acquired Apstar IIR satellite. Loral Skynet's Telstar satellites provide C-band and Ku-band coverage over the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Orion 1 and 2 satellites provide trans-Atlantic coverage and the Apstar IIR Asian region coverage. Loral Skynet customers lease transponder capacity to distribute network television programming, to collect live video feeds for the reporting of news and events, to offer direct-to-home and pay-per-view programming, and to deliver data, distance learning, educational, and other business television services. For more information, visit Loral Skynet's web site at www.loralskynet.com.

Space Systems/Loral, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is a leading designer and manufacturer of both geostationary (GEO) and low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, with more than 40 spacecraft currently in backlog. The company is the prime contractor for the Globalstar constellation of global telephony LEO satellites. Its GEO communications satellites include direct-broadcast, multi-media, broadband and digital audio radio spacecraft; it also builds environmental science, weather-watch, and air traffic control spacecraft. For more information, visit Space Systems/Loral's web site at www.ssloral.com.

Loral Space & Communications is a high technology company that concentrates primarily on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based services, including broadcast transponder leasing and value-added services, domestic and international corporate data networks, global wireless telephony, broadband data transmission and formatting, Internet connectivity, and international direct-to-home satellite services. For more information, visit Loral's web site at www.loral.com.