Loral Selected To Build Weather And Air Traffic Control Satellite For Japan Ministry Of Transport

Business Wire, March 20, 1995

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 1995--Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Corporation (NYSE:LOR), has been awarded a contract valued at 9.9 billion Yen from Japan's Ministry of Transport to build an advanced geostationary satellite for air traffic control and weather observation.

The satellite, based on Loral's standard 3-axis spacecraft, is scheduled for delivery to Japan in 1999, where it will be launched on a Japanese H-II rocket.

The satellite will be known as the Multi-functional Transport Satellite or MTSAT and will be used by the Japanese government for air traffic control and weather forecasting.

MTSAT is believed to be the first non-research and development satellite operated by the Japanese government to provide aeronautical and mobile communications capability for air traffic control operations, broadening Loral's participation in the air traffic control arena where it already is a major player in ground-based air traffic control systems for customers in the U.S., the United Kingdom and other nations.

The award also reinforces Loral's position as a major provider of both environmental and telecommunications satellites to the Japanese market. SS/L built Japan's Superbird telecommunications satellites and currently is under contract to build two N-STAR communications satellites for Nippon Telegraph & Telephone.

MTSAT will carry a weather imaging sensor built by ITT Aerospace, Fort Wayne, Ind., and it will have communications equipment built by Alcatel Espace of France. Toshiba will provide additional hardware and support services for the program.

All integration and testing of the spacecraft will take place at SS/L's facilities in Palo Alto.

MTSAT will draw on state-of-the-art technology being used on the current five-satellite U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program called GOES-I-M, for which SS/L is the prime contractor.

The imager for MTSAT will be similar to the instrument ITT developed and built for GOES-I-M, the first of which was launched in April 1994. Data and imagery from this satellite, known as GOES-8, have been called "the best ever" by meteorological scientists. The second spacecraft in the GOES series is scheduled to be launched in May 1995.

Space Systems/Loral, based in Palo Alto, Calif., designs and manufactures complex, high-powered satellites for telecommunications and environmental applications. The company is the prime contractor for the Tempo and PanAmSat direct broadcast satellites, the INTELSAT VII series, N-STAR and Mabuhay (Philippines) communications satellites, as well as the GOES next-generation U.S. weather forecasting satellites.

Loral Corporation, headquartered in New York City, is a high-technology company that primarily concentrates in defense electronics, communications, space and systems integration.

CONTACT: Loral Corporation

Joseph Tedino, 703/416-5540