Hughes To Launch State-of-the-Art Satellite for PanAmSat.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 1997--PAS-5, the most powerful satellite built by Hughes to date and featuring state-of-the-art technologies, is scheduled for launch aboard a Russian rocket Thursday (Wednesday in the United States).

The satellite will be used by PanAmSat Corp., primarily for direct-to-home television services in Latin America and other video and telecommunications services for the Americas and Europe.

PAS-5 is the first HS 601HP (for high-power) model off the production line at Hughes Space and Communications Co. (HSC). PAS-5 offers the most advanced package of technologies available in a communications satellite, featuring the first commercial use of ion propulsion and of high-performance, dual-junction gallium arsenide solar cells, as well as a high-capacity battery and enhanced thermal control system.

With nearly 10 kilowatts total spacecraft power generated by two four-panel solar wings, PAS-5 is twice as powerful as other Hughes-built spacecraft now in orbit. PAS-5 carries 24 active 50-watt transponders in C-band and 24 active transponders in Ku-band. Six of those are 60-watt transponders, and 18 offer 110 watts. PAS-5 will operate at 58 degrees West longitude, over the Atlantic Ocean.

The 10-minute window for launch aboard the ILS Proton Block DM rocket opens at 6:30 a.m. Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan (5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Los Angeles, 00:27 Thursday GMT).

Hughes introduced the HP version of its highly successful body-stabilized HS 601 satellite line in early 1995; it now represents nearly 20 percent of HS 601 orders. The HS 601 family has become the world's top-selling large spacecraft model. Whereas the baseline HS 601 was designed for customers with spacecraft power needs as high as 4-5 kilowatts, the HP version doubles that through the application of new techniques and technologies.

PAS-5 will be the first commercial communications satellite to carry Hughes' high-efficiency xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS), which will be used for north-south stationkeeping maneuvers. Hughes has been involved in ion propulsion research since the 1960s. The satellite will also carry a conventional bipropellant propulsion system for orbital insertion and east-west stationkeeping. PAS-5 has a contracted service life of 15 years.

Other enhancements for the HS 601HP line include dual-junction gallium arsenide solar cells, which can deliver as much as 75 percent more of the sun's energy than conventional silicon cells. Hughes was the first builder to use gallium arsenide cells on commercial spacecraft, beginning with the MEASAT satellites launched last year.

Dual-junction solar cells take the technology further, manufactured with a patented layering technique that increases efficiency. Spectrolab Inc., a Hughes Electronics Corp. subsidiary, provides HSC's solar cells.

To maintain full-power capability during eclipse, PAS-5 carries a 29-cell, 350 Amp-hr. nickel-hydrogen battery. And because the high-power payloads also generate more heat, Hughes upgraded the HS 601's thermal subsystem by adding heat pipes, using direct-radiating traveling-wave tubes and enlarging the thermal radiator panels.

HSC shipped PAS-5 to the launch site on July 21. This is the second Hughes-built satellite to be launched on a Proton. The first commercial Proton launch, which was last year, also carried a Hughes-built satellite.

HSC is the world's leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites, having built about 40 percent of those in operation. It also is a major supplier of spacecraft and equipment to the U.S. government, and builder of weather satellites for the United States and Japan. HSC, Spectrolab and PanAmSat are all units of Hughes Electronics.

The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.

CONTACT: Hughes, Los Angeles

Fran Slimmer, 310/364-6363.

http://www.hughespace.com