Boeing Awarded Contract for Direct-to-Home Entertainment Satellite

ST. LOUIS — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has been awarded a contract to build a commercial satellite for ProtoStar Ltd. The 601 HP-model spacecraft will deliver direct-to-home satellite television programming and broadband Internet access throughout Asia. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Scheduled to launch in 2009, the ProtoStar II satellite will feature high-powered capacity and significantly expand ProtoStar’s capacity throughout the Asia-Pacific region. ProtoStar is developing a satellite constellation of high-powered geostationary satellites that will provide a satellite network enabling robust direct-to-home (DTH) services in Asia.

“With the addition of this new Boeing 601HP commercial satellite to its fleet, ProtoStar will provide optimized direct-to-home satellite television service and broadband Internet access across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Howard Chambers, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. “ProtoStar II will reach billions of people in India, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Southeast Asia.”

Philip Father, ProtoStar’s CEO, added that, “ProtoStar II demonstrates again our commitment to building a multi-satellite constellation to enable the next generation of television services across Asia. Boeing’s support of our satellite manufacturing program reflects our shared vision of this exciting high power, high definition DTH future.”

Boeing is building and testing ProtoStar II at its 1 million square foot satellite manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif.