El Segundo, CA – Boeing has finished production of a trio of communication satellites for the Mexican government.

The $1 billion contract for the “Mexsat” project was signed in 2011 calling for Boeing to design and manufacture two 702HP geo-mobile satellites and contract with the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to build the third, a GEOStar-2.

The Orbital-built satellite was completed in 2012 and was successfully launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket in December of that year.

The development of two ground stations in Iztapalapa and Hermosillo was included in the contract and will serve to relay space-based signals to the satellites once they are deployed to their full 134-foot length.

Both Boeing 702HP satellites are equipped with five solar panel “wings” and an antenna roughly the size of a basketball court.

The company has already provided Mexico with five satellites dating back to 1985 with the last launched in 1998 and still in service.

Boeing said it will launch the first 702HP in early 2015 on a Russian Proton-M rocket with the second set to be sent aloft aboard an Atlas V by 2016.

07/02/2014