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HUGHES GOES TO MOON TO SALVAGE SATELLITE (photo)
First Commercial Lunar Mission

LOS ANGELES, April 29, 1998 -- Hughes engineers are completing a first-of-its-kind experimental mission that will swing a communications satellite around the moon in an attempt to reposition it to provide service on Earth.

The spacecraft, originally called AsiaSat 3, has been stranded in a lower than planned orbit since its failed launch on Christmas Day of last year. During the last several weeks, Hughes controllers have fired the satellite's onboard rocket motor -- called the liquid apogee motor -- several times to raise it out of its elliptical orbit of 350 kilometers by 36,000 kilometers (217 miles by 22,300 miles). The final firing, on May 7, will send it on a 9-day round trip to the moon. If successful, the satellite is expected back into a circular orbit over the equator by the end of May. The satellite's orbital slot and new name are to be determined. At present, it is informally referred to as HGS-1.

The untried maneuver involves sending the spacecraft into a three-dimensional figure-8 orbit around the moon, using lunar gravity to fling the satellite back into a usable Earth orbit. The salvage mission was devised by orbital analysts at Hughes Space and Communications Company, which built the HS 601HP model spacecraft. Analytical Graphics, Inc., is supporting Hughes with the mission. This is the first known commercial use of the moon and the first lunar mission attempted by a non-governmental entity.

The spacecraft was originally intended for geostationary orbit (36,000 kilometers/23,000 miles) over Asia, but the fourth stage of its Russian Proton booster rocket shut down prematurely, stranding the satellite in a highly inclined elliptical orbit.

After the launch failure the original owner of the spacecraft, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong, filed an insurance claim. The insurers declared the spacecraft a total loss for its original purposes. Hughes Global Services, Inc., (HGS) reached an agreement this month with the insurers to attempt the high-risk salvage mission, and HGS has obtained the title to the spacecraft.

HGS is considering various revenue-generating uses for the satellite. Applications might include offering the U.S. government assured surge communications and augmentation in areas of insufficient capacity. Beyond this, the satellite may offer a means to affordably establish a satellite communications infrastructure. HGS was formed 10 months ago as a subsidiary of Hughes Space and Communications. It provides domestic and international government and public sector agencies at all levels with "one-stop shopping" access to commercially available satellite communications.

"While NASA has used gravity assists to send spacecraft off on interplanetary missions, no one has ever tried it to bring a communications satellite back into Earth orbit," said Ronald V. Swanson, HGS president. He noted that a similar "free return trajectory" was employed nearly 30 years ago, during the early Apollo missions.

Hughes engineers expect the lunar fly-by will use most of the approximately 3700 pounds of propellant onboard the satellite. "Because this has never been done before, we don't know exactly how much propellant we'll use. We've made our best estimates, based on 35 years of building and operating satellites, as well as on computer models, but there are no guarantees," Swanson said. "We're going for the best obtainable orbit."

Hughes has funded the salvage mission itself. If HGS-1 can be put into service, Hughes will share profits with the insurance underwriters. "It's a very powerful, capable satellite," Swanson said, "and the potential applications are great if we can get it into a usable orbit. Keep in mind, however, that nothing like this has ever been done and it is still an experiment."

The satellite is a fully functional HS 601HP model capable of covering more than a quarter of the Earth at any one time. It had been kept in a stowed and dormant state until its fate was decided. With 44 high-power active transponders -- 28 in C-band and 16 in Ku-band -- it was built to provide television distribution and telecommunications services throughout Asia, India, the Middle East, Australasia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The wide coverage area, plus fixed and steerable spot beams, would make it a valuable and flexible asset, Swanson said.

This isn't the first time Hughes technology has gone to the moon. An early program was the Surveyor lunar lander series for NASA. The first of seven of these Hughes-built spacecraft was launched in 1966, leading the way for American astronauts to land on the moon. Hughes Space and Communications, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, is the world leader in manufacturing commercial geostationary communications satellites. Hughes has been building communications and scientific spacecraft and instruments for more than 3-1/2 decades. Its first satellite, Syncom, launched in 1963, was the first satellite to be placed in synchronous orbit.

HGS' focus is packaging commercial satellite services on a customized basis for government and military customers. To accomplish this, HGS has agreements with providers of bandwidth, terminal equipment, and satellite mobile telephone services. HGS also works with other Hughes Electronics companies to provide end-to-end solutions for underserved commercial markets. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.

Other organizations that are assisting HGS with the mission are the U.S. and Air Force Space Commands, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and EMBRATEL of Brazil.

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EDITORS: Real-time plotting of the mission is available at the websites of Hughes Space and Communications (www.hughespace.com) and Hughes Global Services (www.hughesglobal.com). Betacam video is available on request to television news outlets. This is strictly a communications satellite, so there are no cameras onboard.
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