Intelsat orders two sats for Latin America
September 9, 2011
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat has ordered two satellites, worth about $500 million when launch costs are included, to serve DirecTV’s growing demand for DTH channels over Latin America. Space Systems/Loral will build the satellites. The order was announced at IBC in Amsterdam.
Dubbed DLA-1 and DLA-2, “the new satellites will help us support our customer’s expansion in the region,” said Romulo Pontual, DirecTV’s EVP and CTO. “By working closely with Intelsat and SS/L we are able to leverage the spot-beam frequency re-use technologies to greatly expand the capacity into Latin America.”
The satellites are due for launch in 2014 and 2015 and will be cop-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C craft at 95 degrees West orbital location.