HUGHES WEATHER INSTRUMENT TO LAUNCH ON NASA SPACECRAFT

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

HUGHES WEATHER INSTRUMENT TO LAUNCH ON NASA SPACECRAFT (photo)

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6, 1997 -- A second-generation weather instrument built by Hughes Space and Communications Company is scheduled to be launched Nov. 18 on a NASA spacecraft on an H2 rocket from Tanegashima, Japan. Co-sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) will provide a three-year dataset of global tropical and subtropical rainfall, a major predictor of climate and weather forecasting.

The Hughes-designed TRMM Microwave Imager, or TMI, is designed to operate with a precipitation radar provided by NASDA, and together the two will more accurately measure rainfall over large areas, improving our understanding of air and sea interactions that lead to such seasonal events as the "El Niño" effect.

"Today, more than ever, accurate weather forecast and prediction is crucial," said Donald L. Cromer, president of Hughes Space and Communications Company. "Countless lives may be saved through the advance warning of approaching storms. Hughes has been involved in environmental monitoring from space since the launch of our first weather instrument in 1967. We are proud of the role Hughes has played in obtaining this vital information."

TMI sees weather images that traditional visible and infrared sensors are unable to view. While the former can see only the tops of cloud formations, the TMI, because of its ability to detect microwave energy emitted from a source, can peer into and through clouds in order to more accurately measure rain rate, wind speed over the ocean, the amount of water in clouds and soil moisture.

Backed by more than two decades of experience, TMI is the second in Hughes' line of microwave imagers. The first, the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager, SSM/I, was designed for the U.S. Air Force for use on its Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, DMSP. The first SSM/I was launched in June 1987, and today five SSM/I instruments are in operation, with a total of more than 23 years of in-orbit experience. Hughes is also designing a next-generation microwave imager, a Conical Scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder, CMIS, which, through the addition of a sounder, is capable of taking a vertical picture through the atmosphere, thereby reading temperature and humidity profiles at various atmospheric levels.

A unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, Hughes Space and Communications Company is the world's leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites. It also is a major supplier of spacecraft and equipment to the U.S. government, and builder of weather satellites for the United States and the current Geostationary Meteorological Satellites (GMS) for Japan. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.

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