Space Systems/Loral has been awarded a contract by Japan's Ministry of Transport to build the replacement for the MTSAT satellite lost in the failure of the national H2 booster last year.
The MTSAT 1R will be launched in 2002, but its launcher and launch site have yet to be decided. The satellite will be located at 140¼E in geostationary orbit and will be equipped with L-, Ku- and Ka-band transponders.
The MTSAT is designed to provide communications and navigation services to aircraft and to distribute weather data to Asia Pacific mobile users.
Source: Flight International
