TS News - PAS-5 Launch Wednesday

• from: owner-ts-news@tele-satellite.com
• Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 16:51:36 +0900

TELE-satellit News, 26 August 1997

PAS-5 Launch Wednesday
  TOKYO, Japan, 97/08/26 (TS) -- PAS-5, the most powerful satellite built
by Hughes to date, is scheduled for launch aboard a Russian rocket Thursday
(Wednesday in the United States). The satellite will be used by PanAmSat
Corp., primarily for direct-to-home television services in Latin America
and other video and telecommunications services for the Americas and Europe.

  PAS-5 is the first HS 601HP (for high-power) model off the production
line at Hughes Space and Communications Co. (HSC).  PAS-5 offers the most
advanced package of technologies available in a communications satellite,
featuring the first commercial use of ion propulsion and of
high-performance, dual-junction gallium arsenide solar cells, as well as a
high-capacity battery and enhanced thermal control system.

  With nearly 10 kilowatts total spacecraft power generated by two
four-panel solar wings, PAS-5 is twice as powerful as other Hughes-built
spacecraft now in orbit.  PAS-5 carries 24 active 50-watt transponders in
C-band and 24 active transponders in Ku-band. Six of those are 60-watt
transponders, and 18 offer 110 watts.  PAS-5 will operate at 58 degrees
West longitude, over the Atlantic Ocean.  

  The 10-minute window for launch aboard the ILS Proton Block DM rocket
opens at 6:30 a.m. Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in
Kazakhstan (5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Los Angeles, 00:27 Thursday GMT).  

(c)TELE-satellit 1997. All rights reserved.

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