NAVY'S UHF F9 SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED

HUGHES SPACE AND COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY
Communications and Customer Relations
P.O. Box 92919 (S10/S323)
Los Angeles, CA 90009
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NAVY'S UHF F9 SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct. 20, 1998 -- The U.S. Navy's ninth UHF Follow-On satellite, built by Hughes Space and Communications Company, was successfully launched early this morning.

Liftoff was at 3:19 a.m. EDT (12:19 a.m. PDT, 7:19 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Station aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA rocket. About 30 minutes after liftoff, UHF F9 was injected into an elliptical transfer orbit. About 35 minutes after liftoff, satellite controllers received signals from UHF F9, indicating systems are operating normally.

The satellite is the ninth in the series, as well as the second of three with a revolutionary Global Broadcast Service (GBS) payload. When the third GBS spacecraft is launched next year, the Department of Defense will have near-global high-speed, wideband coverage for warfighters on land, at sea and in the air. This GBS capability was implemented just two years after the Navy ordered it in 1996. The F8, F9 and F10 satellites continue to carry the baseline narrowband UHF and protected EHF payloads as well. The GBS payload has three GBS steerable downlink spot beam antennas, in addition to one steerable and one fixed GBS uplink antenna. This antenna modification results in a 96 Mbps capability.

UHF F9 is the eighth launch of the year for Hughes, and it is the 43rd HS 601 spacecraft to be launched.

A unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, Hughes Space and Communications Company is the world's leading manufacturer of geostationary commercial communications satellites and is also a major supplier of spacecraft and scientific instruments to the U.S. government, and builder of weather satellites for the United States and 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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