spacetoday.net: Loral, Orbital win satellite orders

Posted: Wed, Jun 2, 2010, 6:35 AM ET (1035 GMT)
SS/Loral 1300 satellite illustration (SS/Loral)

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) and Orbital Sciences Corporation announced Tuesday that they have won contracts for communications satellites. SS/L will build the Anik G1 satellite for Canadian company Telesat, scheduled for launch on a Proton rocket in the second half of 2012. The 1300-series satellite will be located at 107.3 degrees west in GEO and will be equipped with Ku- and C-band transponders to serve Canada and South America. The spacecraft will also carry three X-band transponders for government use in the Americas and part of the Pacific. Also on Tuesday, Orbital announced it had signed a contract with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the Azerspace/Africasat-1a communications satellite. That spacecraft will provide 36 Ku- and C-band transponders and operate from 46 degrees east in GEO, a slot provided to Azerbaijan by Malaysia.