HUGHES SPACE AND COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY
Communications and Customer Relations
P.O. Box 92919 (S10/S323)
Los Angeles, CA 90009
(310) 364-6363
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HUGHES ENDS YEAR WITH ASIASAT 3 LAUNCH (photo)

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 15, 1997 -- Hughes Space and Communications Company will close out 1997 with the launch of AsiaSat 3, a high-power satellite built for Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited, or AsiaSat, Tuesday morning, Dec. 23, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is the second spacecraft supplied by Hughes to Hong Kong-based AsiaSat.

The launch is the ninth and last for Hughes this year, and is also the company's fourth launch in the month of December. AsiaSat 3 is scheduled for launch on a Proton rocket at 4:18 a.m. Tuesday (3:18 p.m. Monday in Los Angeles, 11:18 p.m. Monday GMT).

"This year has been a busy one for us here at Hughes, but it's also been an exciting one," said Donald L. Cromer, president of Hughes Space and Communications Company. "In 1997 we saw the launch of our first high-power HS 601HP satellite. As the year draws to a close, we will have launched four of these powerful spacecraft, which feature dual-junction gallium arsenide solar cells and an optional xenon ion propulsion system, the world's first commercially available xenon ion propulsion system. We will begin 1998 with a backlog of approximately 36 satellites, and by the year's end, we will launch our newest and most powerful yet, the HS 702."

AsiaSat 3 is an HS 601HP or high-power satellite, featuring 9900 watts of power. It will increase AsiaSat's capacity to distribute television and telecommunications services to Asia, the Middle East, Australasia, and the Commonwealth Independent States. The satellite will carry 28 active C-band transponders using 55-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs). It will also carry 16 active Ku-band transponders using 138-watt TWTAs. These transponders will operate through two 107-inch-diameter shaped surface antennas. One antenna, mounted on the east side of the satellite and operating in C-band, will provide broad-band coverage of Asia and Australasia. The west-side antenna will operate in Ku-band and provide focused area coverage of East Asia.

A 50-inch diameter, dual-gridded shaped surface antenna, operating in Ku-band, will provide focused area coverage of South Asia. In addition, a 40-inch-diameter Ku-band steerable spot-beam antenna will allow AsiaSat 3 to direct coverage to any area on the Earth's surface which is visible from the spacecraft's orbital location of 105.5 degrees East longitude.

AsiaSat 3 is designed for 15 years of service after delivery in-orbit. It will join AsiaSat 1, an HS 376 spin-stabilized spacecraft, also built by Hughes and launched in 1990. Both satellites are controlled from an integrated satellite control facility in Hong Kong, which was also built by Hughes.

Hughes Space and Communications Company, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial communications satellites, and is also a major supplier of spacecraft for communications and space exploration to the U.S. government.

The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.

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