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| READY TO SHIP -- A technician in Hughes' Integrated Satellite Factory adjusts the thermal blanket materials on the 8th UHF Follow-On satellite prior to shipment. The satellite, built by Hughes Space and Communications Company, is a customized HS 601 model and features a high-power, high-speed Global Broadcast Service (GBS) payload, which will revolutionize communications for the full range of the Department of Defense's
high-capacity requirements, from intelligence dissemination to
quality-of-life programming. The satellite has four 130-watt, 24 Mbps
military Ka-band transponders and will transmit to small, mobile, tactical
terminals. The GBS payload has three GBS steerable downlink spot beam
antennas, visible here as the black antennas toward the bottom of the
spacecraft, in addition to one steerable and one fixed GBS uplink antenna.
This antenna modification results in a 96 Mbps capability. The F8, F9 and
F10 satellites continue to carry the baseline narrowband UHF and protected
EHF payloads, as well as wideband GBS services. Launch on an Atlas II from
Cape Canaveral, Fla, is scheduled for March 1998.
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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 |
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