Arabsat, The Arab Satellite Communications Organisation, will lease PanAmSat's PAS 5 communications satellite to provide gapfiller services over the Middle East until the end of 2005. This will compensate for the loss of Arabsat 3A, which suffered power problems last year.
PAS 5 was retired in 1999 due to a power shortage but is still usable and will be moved to 26°E to provide temporary C-band services.
PanAmSat will operate the satellite for a $1.5 million annual fee while PAS 5's insurers and Arabsat will share the revenues.
PAS 5 was launched in 1997, the first of the former Hughes (now Boeing) HS-601 High Power satellites. The loss of services after a battery malfunction led to a $185 million insurance claim, against the $170 million for a power switch failure on the Alcatel Space-built, Spacebus 3000B-based Arabsat 3A, which lost eight transponders.
Meanwhile, an Andean communications satellite to serve Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela may be launched in 2004, after 16 years of negotiations. The Andean satellite will be the Brazilian Ku-band transponder-equipped Star One 1 craft ordered last year from Alcatel Space.
It is one of four planned satellites in the BolivaSat system, located at 67°W, the same position booked for the Andean craft. Star One 1 will be jointly owned and operated. BolivaSat 1-3 satellites are booked at locations at 106°W, 109°W and 78.5°W.
Source: Flight International
