Loral Skynet initiates Telstar 5 service.

BEDMINSTER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 1, 1997--Loral Skynet today announced that Telstar 5, its newest broadcast video and data communications satellite, has been successfully deployed at 97 degrees west longitude and, effective today, is in full commercial service.

Telstar 5, built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), of Palo Alto, Calif., is one of the most sophisticated and powerful communications satellites available to broadcasters and program distributors in North America, covering the continental United States, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and into Canada and Latin America.

"The successful launch of Telstar 5 service is a significant milestone for Loral Skynet," said Terry Hart, president of Loral Skynet, "and a critical step in our plan to expand our capacity and reach around the world."

In addition to Telstar 5 and the already orbiting Telstar 4, which provides C-band and Ku-band coverage over the continental U.S., Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Loral Skynet's vigorous growth plan includes future launches of Telstar 6, 7, 8 and 9. Telstar 6 and Telstar 7, two high-powered satellites being built by Space Systems/Loral, are expected to be in service in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

Telstar 5 will feature a network broadcast/syndication distribution neighborhood anchored by the ABC and the Fox networks. In addition, the satellite will be used by TelQuest, a program distributor based in Philadelphia, which provides digital video services to wireless and traditional cable head-ends.

Other Telstar 5 customers will include such value-added service providers as The SPACECONNECTION, GlobeCast(R) (formerly Keystone Communications), and Broadcast Satellite International.

Telstar 5, which carries a total of 52 transponders -- 24 at C-band and 28 at Ku-band -- is based on SS/L's three-axis, body-stabilized FS-1300 bus, whose modular design has proven its worth during 270 years of cumulative on-orbit service, close to one-half of the total of 600 years amassed by SS/L satellites to date.

The satellite generates a total of 3200 RF watts of on-board transmitter power. Lightweight composite materials and highly efficient techniques for dissipating thermal energy and for generating and storing electricity allow for a substantial increase in the spacecraft's abilities with almost no increase in size and weight.

Telstar 5 was launched on May 25, 1997, aboard a Proton rocket manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Moscow, in association with International Launch Services (ILS), a joint venture company of Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Russian companies Khrunichev and RSC Energia.

Telstar 5 is the latest satellite in the Telstar series, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. The inaugural satellite, Telstar 1, was launched on July 10, 1962, and was the world's first active communications satellite.

Based in Bedminster, NJ, Loral Skynet is a leading U.S. satellite communications service provider that owns and operates the Telstar satellites. Loral Skynet's customers lease transponder capacity to distribute network television programming to local affiliate stations, to collect live video feeds for the reporting of news and sporting events, and to offer direct-to-home subscription and pay-per-view television programming, distance learning and educational and other business television services.

Loral Skynet is a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications Ltd., a high-technology company headquartered in New York City, that concentrates on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based services. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Space Systems/Loral, is a premier manufacturer of commercial communications and weather satellites. Loral manages and holds a 38% equity interest in the global, mobile satellite-based telephony system, Globalstar(TM), scheduled for service initiation in late 1998. Loral also is the developer of CyberStar(TM), a geostationary satellite-based, open protocol, digital telecommunications system that will offer a variety of low-cost, high-speed, data and telecommunications services worldwide from leased Ku-band transponders satellites beginning in late 1997, and through a dedicated constellation of geosynchronous Ka-band satellites beginning in 1999.

CONTACT: Loral Skynet

David Benton, 703/414-1045