spacetoday.net: PanAmSat cancels planned satellite

Posted: Fri, Nov 15, 2002, 7:25 AM ET (1225 GMT)
Boeing 601 illustration (BSS)

Satellite operator PanAmSat announced this week that it has canceled plans to purchase and launch a communications satellite. In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, PanAmSat said the company that planned to lease all the transponders on the Galaxy 8iR satellite under construction terminated its agreement with PanAmSat. As a result, PanAmSat elected to cancel its construction contract with Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS) for the Boeing 601HP satellite. PanAmSat reported that it believes it is owed $72 million in refunds from BSS for the spacecraft. PanAmSat had procured a launch of the spacecraft on a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL; that launch will instead be used for a future satellite. In the same filing PanAmSat revealed that it plans to launch just four satellites by 2006. In 2003 the Galaxy 12 and Galaxy 13/Horizons-1 spacecraft are scheduled for launch, while replacements for Galaxy 5 and Galaxy 1R are scheduled for launch by 2005 and 2006, respectively.