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TS News - Hughes To Build New Mexican Satellite

TELE-satellit News, 21 August 1996

Hughes To Build New Mexican Satellite
  MEXICO CITY, Mexico, 96/08/20 (TS) -- Hughes Space and Communications
International and Telecomunicaciones de Mexico (Telecomm) have signed a
contract for a high-power satellite, Morelos III, that Hughes will deliver
in 1998.

  Hughes won the contract after being considered the technically best and
lowest-priced in a three-way competition. It was judged by the Secretariat
of Communications and Transportation, of which Telecomm is a part.

  The country's previous spacecraft are both Hughes built. They include
Morelos I and II, launched in 1985, and Solidaridad I and II, launched in
1993 and 1994, respectively. Morelos I has been taken out of service, and
Morelos II is due for retirement in 1998.

  The new satellite, an HS 601HP model, will be one of the most powerful
Hughes has built. By using gallium arsenide solar cells, Morelos III will
offer nearly 8 kilowatts of payload power. The satellite will reach not only
all of Mexico, but also most of North and South America, from its orbital
position of 116.8 degrees West longitude.

  Morelos III doubles the available communications capacity at that
location, now occupied by Morelos II. The new satellite will carry 24 active
transponders in both C-band and Ku-band, delivering such general
communications services as voice, fax, business communications, television
distribution and educational programming. Telecomm plans to equip all
schools in Mexico with satellite dishes.

  The craft has an operational life of 15 years. Telecomm will make its own
arrangements for launch. Morelos III will carry three reflectors, one for
C-band and one for each of two Ku-band beams. The 24 C-band transponders are
powered by 36-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs). Twelve Ku-band
transponders will use 110-watt TWTAs, and the other 12 will have 132-watt TWTAs.


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