Tim Furniss/LONDON
HUGHES SPACE and Communications International has maintained its lead in the satellite-manufacturing market with contract awards to build three HS-601 and one HS-376 communications satellites for Luxembourg, Malaysia and Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (ASC).
The deals bring orders for the three-axis HS-601 to 38 and HS-376 spin-stabilised satellite orders to 45 since they were first introduced in 1987 and 1980, respectively.
Two enhanced HS-601 satellites will be delivered to the Indian-led ASC, in-orbit in December 1997 and March 1998, for $700 million. They will provide hand-held telephone users with a regional-satellite service covering the entire African continent, India and over 50 countries in central Asia, the CIS and the Middle East.
ASC, a consortium promoted by India's Essel group and involving members from Gibraltar, Mauritius, Singapore and the UK, will begin turnkey services in late 1997/8 - using gateways and control centres in Bombay and Gibraltar built by Hughes Network Systems. The system is scheduled to be in operation before worldwide-coverage services, are established by Globalstar, Inmarsat P, Iridium, Odyssey and others.
The project represents the largest private telecommunications investment made by India. ASC claims, that the geostationary-orbit-based system will offer lower costs to users, compared with competitive low-Earth and intermediate circular-orbit systems. Handsets are expected to cost about $1,000.
The HS-601s will generate 5kW of power and will each handle 16,000 telephone calls simultaneously, at the international telephony Groupe Speciale Mobile (GMS) technical standard. The satellite will have a Hughes xenon ion propulsion system, in which electrical energy is used for higher performance and which results in lighter launch weight, compared with conventional chemical-propulsion systems.
Hughes' third HS-601 will be built for Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) and, when launched in 1997, will become Astra 1G, the fifth HS-601 built for SES. The Astra 1C and 1D are in orbit and the 1E and 1F will be launched in 1995/6.
The 28 Ku-band transponder Astra 1G will generate 8kW from new gallium-arsenide solar arrays, replacing conventional silicon materials. SES has until 1996 to exercise an option on an additional HS-601.
A second Malaysia East Asia Satellite, the Measat 2, will be built by Hughes and launched in 1996 as a back-up to the Measat 1 which is scheduled for launch in December 1995. A growth version of the HS-376, it delivers 40% more payload power - 1,100kW, using gallium-arsenide arrays - and incorporates other enhancements, some derived from the HS-601.
Source: Flight International
