The iPSTAR-1 spacecraft under construction. Credit: Loral

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, has completed static loads testing of iPSTAR-1, the world's largest commercial communications satellite with a launch weight of 14,900 pounds (6775 kilograms). iPSTAR-1 is being built by SS/L at its Palo Alto, California facility for Shin Satellite, Plc of Thailand.

Static loads testing validates the spacecraft structure and its ability to carry the loads it will experience during the satellite's manufacturing, launch and operation in geosynchronous orbit.

Shin Satellite will use the spacecraft to provide broadband Internet services throughout a large portion of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. With eighty-four spot beams and a total throughput capability of approximately 40 gigabytes per second, iPSTAR-1 will support individual user data rates of up to eight megabytes per second forward link and four megabytes per second return link to as many as eight million users. Service prices will be comparable to ground-based broadband technologies, ushering in a new era in satellite delivered broadband services. Launch is planned for early 2004 into an orbital slot at 120 degrees East longitude.

Space Systems/Loral is a premier designer, manufacturer, and integrator of powerful satellites and satellite systems. SS/L also provides a range of related services that include mission control operations and procurement of launch services. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the company has an international base of commercial and governmental customers whose applications include broadband digital communications, direct-to-home broadcast, defense communications, environmental monitoring, and air traffic control. SS/L is ISO 9001 certified.

Shin Satellite, a turnkey satellite operator, provides C-band and Ku-band transponder leasing, teleport and other value-added and engineering services to users in Asia, Africa, Europe and Australasia. Shin Satellite owns and operates Thaicom 1A, 2, and 3. Thaicom 1A is located at 120 degrees East, and Thaicom 2 and 3 are both located at 78.5 degrees East with a total capacity of 49 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders offering over 70 channels. Thaicom is a hotbird for Indochina and India, an emerging platform of choice for transcontinental Sat TV broadcasts from Europe to Australia. The company has spent years researching and developing new technology to make Internet via satellite more efficient, thus reducing costs and improving the service to end-users.

Loral Space & Communications is a satellite communications company. Through its Skynet subsidiary, it owns and operates a global fleet of telecommunications satellites used by television and cable networks to broadcast video entertainment programming, and by communication service providers, resellers, corporate and government customers for broadband data transmission, Internet services and other value-added communications services. Loral also is a world-class leader in the design and manufacture of satellites and satellite systems through its Space Systems/Loral subsidiary.