Loral Skynet has been unable to re-establish contact with its Telstar 4 satellite, which experienced a short circuit of its primary power bus on 19-Sep-03. The satellite has been declared a total loss. The satellite was insured for $141 million. Under Loral’s agreement to sell its six North American satellites to Intelsat, the purchase price will be reduced by any insurance proceeds received by Loral. Loral continues to expect to complete the sale in a timely manner.
Loral has been planning to replace Telstar 4 at 89 degrees West in mid-2004 with the larger and more powerful Telstar 8 satellite, currently under construction at Space Systems/Loral. Telstar 8 carries a Ka-band payload, in addition to C- and Ku-band.
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- In July 2003, Loral Space & Communications and certain of its subsidiaries filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions. In a related transaction, Loral agreed to sell six satellites and the rights to their orbital locations to Intelsat for up to $1 billion. Intelsat said the proposed acquisition of the Loral assets would complement the Intelsat global network, which includes capacity on 26 satellites.
- In August 2003, EchoStar Communications submitted a counter bid to acquire Loral’s six North American satellites, as well as the balance of Loral’s FSS fleet and its satellite manufacturing assets.