HUGHES SPACE AND COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY Communications and Customer Relations P.O. Box 92919 (S10/S323) Los Angeles, CA 90009 (310) 364-6363

HUGHES SATELLITE TO PROVIDE DIRECT BROADCAST SERVICES TO JAPAN (photo)

KOUROU, French Guiana, April 10, 1997 -- Broadcast services to more than 10 million customers throughout Japan will improve next week with the launch of the first of two direct-broadcast service (DBS) satellites, BSAT-1a.

The satellite is an HS 376 spin-stabilized satellite built for Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation of Tokyo (B-SAT) by Hughes Space and Communications Company of Los Angeles. The window for launch aboard an Ariane rocket is from 7:59 to 8:41 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in Kourou, (3:59 p.m. PDT, 10:59 p.m. GMT, and 7:59 a.m. Thursday in Tokyo). Launch will be from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

This is the second of 11 satellites Hughes will launch this year. Hughes has been delivering a satellite for launch at the rate of nearly one per month since fall 1993.

BSAT-1a will be stationed at 110 degrees East longitude, replacing BS-3 spacecraft currently being used for DBS services, including Hi-Vision broadcasts, by Japan Broadcasting Corporation's NHK, Japan Satellite Broadcasting, Inc.'s WOWOW, and others. The satellite has more than 12.5 years of propellant life.

BSAT-1a carries four active and four spare high-power transponders in Ku-band, using 106-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers. EIRP coverage over Japan will be equivalent to those of the current BS-3 spacecraft.

Hughes Space and Communications International, Inc., a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, is the world's leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites, having built more than 40 percent of those in operation. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.