Loral wins DirecTV bird
By Staff Writer | September 12, 2001
Despite the slow progress in determining its new owners, DirecTV showed no reluctance to put a brake on its own progress, and last week ordered a new craft from Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, and based on Loral’s 1300 bus. DirecTV-7S is slated for delivery in 2H/2003, and will be a high-power spot beam bird generating some 13kW of output into 54 transponders into 27 beams, or should the company decide, 44 transponders into 30 beams. DirecTV say it could go to either the 101 or 119 degrees West slots. Its primary mission is to provide ‘local into local’ channels as well as new services.