Hughes-built weather satellite for Japan ready for launch.

TANEGASHIMA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 1995--GMS-5, the latest in a series of weather satellites for Japan, is undergoing final checkout in preparation for its March 18 launch aboard an H-II rocket.

Launch is set for 4:55 p.m. local time (11:55 p.m. PST, March 17; 7:55 a.m. GMT, March 18).

The satellite was built in Los Angeles by Hughes Space and Communications Co. (HSC) under subcontract to NEC Corp. of Tokyo. The HS 378 model spacecraft is the fifth in a series of Hughes-built Geostationary Meteorological Satellites that have been monitoring weather conditions over the Pacific Basin since 1977. Japan's National Space Development Agency awarded the contract, and the Japanese Meteorological Agency operates the spacecraft.

The rocket will carry the satellite for about 28 minutes, leaving it in an elliptical orbit. Satellite controllers will use GMS-5's own rocket motor to move it over the next week into a circular orbit 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the equator. After about three months of in-orbit testing, the satellite will be turned over for service at 140 degrees east longitude.

The principal instrument aboard the satellite is the visible and infrared spin-scan radiometer (VISSR), built by Hughes' Santa Barbara Research Center. The spacecraft body carries the VISSR and other instruments and spins at 100 rpm, while the antenna portion remains pointed toward Earth. The spinning spacecraft can produce a new image of the Earth every 25 minutes. GMS-5 carries an extra infrared channel to measure atmospheric water-vapor distribution.

The GMS spacecraft collect and distribute weather data to other Asia-Pacific countries and contribute to weather-forecast services in an area that includes Australia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

CONTACT: Hughes Space and Communications Co., Los Angeles

Fran Slimmer, 310/364-6363