Space Systems/Loral has been selected to finalise a contract with China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite to build the Chinasat 8.
The satellite, to be launched late in 1998, will be based on a standard FS-1300, three-axis stabilised spacecraft bus - the 38th of this series to be built - and will be equipped with 16 Ku-band and 36 C-band transponders, to provide video, data and voice telecommunications services in China.
The spacecraft will have total electrical power of 11kW. It is the eighteenth Loral spacecraft in production at its Palo Alto factory in California. Also awaiting launch is the Chinasat 7, a Hughes HS-376 spin-stabilised spacecraft.
Source: Flight International