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Contact:
Christine Nelson |
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Contact:
Christine Nelson |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
97-128
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., July 29, 1997 -- McDonnell Douglas (NYSE: MD) has been awarded a contract to launch Telenor of Norway's Thor III communications satellite in July 1998 on a Delta II expendable rocket. Hughes Space and Communications International, Inc. and Telenor announced the order. The launch will support an August on-orbit delivery to Telenor, which will use Thor III to expand its services to European television markets.
A Delta II three-stage model 7925 rocket will boost the Thor III Hughes HS 376 model spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite initially will have 14 active Ku-band transponders to provide direct-to-home television programming to the Scandinavian countries and to the nations of central and eastern Europe.
McDonnell Douglas Director of NASA and Commercial Delta Programs Darryl C. Van Dorn said, "We are pleased to be able to team with Hughes and Telenor once again to continue to expand TV services in Europe. The Delta team is proud to have been selected for this important mission. We have launched more than 40 satellites built by Hughes -- including Telenor's Thor I and Thor II -- and look forward to adding to that record with Thor III."
Like its predecessors in the Thor series, Thor III has an estimated life span of 11 years. It will join Thor II, launched May 20 of this year from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and Thor I, which was boosted into orbit in August 1990 as BSB-R2, but renamed Thor I when Telenor purchased it in 1992. Thor II provides up to 75 digital TV channels to the Telenor system, and Thor I currently serves more than 750,000 customers with dish antennas and additional cable TV viewers throughout Scandinavia.
McDonnell Douglas is the world's largest builder of military aircraft, and the third largest commercial aircraft manufacturer. Its Space & Defense Systems business, headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif., is a world leader in space transportation, producing the Delta family of expendable launch vehicles. It manufactures major elements of the International Space Station as well as military command, control, communications, computer and intelligence (C4I) systems.
The Delta II rocket is manufactured by McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach and assembled in Pueblo, Colo.
Hughes Space and Communications International is a unit of Hughes Electronics, the world's leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites. Hughes has built 40 percent of those in operation. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.
Telenor is a leader in the growing European region satellite communications business and in other worldwide markets.