ProtoStar

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ProtoStar
legal form Ltd.
founding 2005
resolution 2010
Reason for dissolution bankruptcy
Seat Hamilton , Bermuda
management Philip Father
Number of employees 22nd
sales $ 3.1 million
Branch Satellite communication
Status: 2008

ProtoStar was a satellite operator based in Bermuda . The company launched two television satellites ( ProtoStar 1 and ProtoStar 2 ) that served India and Southeast Asia. In June 2009 the company filed for bankruptcy.

Company structure

The company's aim was to lease the transmission capacity of its own geostationary satellites to television broadcasters. The target area were the emerging markets of India and Southeast Asia. The company's chairman was Philip Father . Originally the planning was based on three satellites. The main customers for the transmission channels were Agrani from India and Indovision from Indonesia.

ProtoStar Ltd. had the following subsidiaries:

  • ProtoStar I Ltd.
  • ProtoStar II Ltd.
  • ProtoStar Satellite Systems, Inc. (PSS)
  • ProtoStar Development Ltd. (PSD)
  • ProtoStar Asia Pte. Ltd. (PSA)

The subsidiary PSS was based in San Francisco , PSA in Singapore , and all other companies in Bermuda .

First satellite

In contrast to its competitors, ProtoStar relied on satellites whose production had already started, but which had not yet been completed. In this way, the company succeeded in buying a satellite from the Chinese operator Chinasat that had been manufactured by the US manufacturer Space Systems / Loral since 1997, but could not be launched in China due to a lack of an export permit and was stored at Loral. From January 2007, Loral modified the satellite according to ProtoStar's requirements.

The launch of Protostar 1 took place on 7 July 2008 by the Guiana Space Center through the company Arianespace . The satellite was stationed at 98.5 ° East .

Second satellite

ProtoStar was also able to access a copy of the second satellite that was designed for another operator: On January 14, 2008, Boeing Satellite Systems announced that the company would build the ProtoStar 2 satellite for ProtoStar. It was the almost completed Galaxy 8iR , which had originally been ordered by PanAmSat , but whose order had been canceled. Now the satellite has been modified for ProtoStar.

As with ProtoSat 1, the control center for ProtoStar 2 was designed and installed by Integral Systems .

ProtoStar 2 was launched on May 16, 2009 by a Proton launcher and placed in a geostationary position over India at 107.7 degrees East . From there it provided satellite television to Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Taiwan. The S-band transponders were rented to the Indonesian company Indovision . For this reason, the satellite was also called Indostar 2 or Cakrawarta 2 .

bankruptcy

There had been political difficulties even before ProtoStar 1 started. As a private company, ProtoStar needed a national regulatory authority to oversee the operation of a satellite. Singapore agreed to do this . The governments of the People's Republic of China and the United Arab Emirates expressed technical concerns about ProtoStar 1 and complained about a lack of coordination.

After Singapore had withdrawn its jurisdiction, ProtoStar 1 was officially without a national supervisory authority for a short time until a contract with the international organization Intersputnik was announced in September 2008 , whose member state Belarus also had rights to this orbital position.

At the beginning of April 2009, the main partner Agrani first canceled its contract with ProtoStar, then Intersputnik revoked the transmission license because ProtoStar 1 was interfering with other satellites. ProtoStar denied both the effectiveness of the termination and the disruptions, but had to shut down the satellite so that the company no longer had any income. The ProtoStar 2 satellite could still be put into operation in June 2009, but ProtoStar had to file for bankruptcy on June 29, 2009.

ProtoStar had around 100 creditors at the time of bankruptcy, most notably Philippine Telephone with $ 27.5 million and Agrani with $ 8.1 million, as well as International Launch Services , Boeing Satellite Systems , Indostar and Arianespace .

The two functional satellites were auctioned as part of the bankruptcy estate. ProtoStar 1 went on October 31, 2009 for 210 million US dollars to the operator Intelsat , which had outbid Eutelsat and nine other competitors. The satellite was renamed Intelsat 25 and placed at 31.5 degrees west over the Atlantic Ocean. In a further auction on December 16, 2009, SES secured the ProtoStar 2 satellite for 185 million US dollars. It was renamed SES-7 , placed at 108.2 ° East and integrated into the SES World Skies network. The S-band transponders remained leased to Indovision.

The company ProtoStar Ltd. ceased operations on October 21, 2010.

Joint venture in Bermuda

On October 2, 2008, after ProtoStar 1 went into commercial operation, the companies ProtoStar and Kiskadee Communications , whose headquarters were also in Bermuda, founded a joint venture called ProtoStar Kiskadee . The aim was to use a lucrative satellite position that the ITU had allocated to Bermuda, and for which Kiskadee had an exclusive right of use. However, as ProtoStar went bankrupt, Kiskadee lost the opportunity to use this satellite position in June 2010. After the ProtoStar company went out, Kiskadee sued former chairman Philip Father and former technical director Eugene Cacciamani for $ 18.25 million in damages in early 2011. They were accused of hiding ProtoStar's financial situation, although they must have realized that it was impossible for the joint venture to take advantage of this unique opportunity. The lawsuit was dismissed in March 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Justin Ray: Two satellites in orbit after good ride from Ariane 5. Spaceflight Now, July 7, 2008, accessed on October 25, 2012 (English).
  2. ^ ProtoStar Fleet. ProtoStar, 2009, accessed October 25, 2012 .
  3. ↑ a b Cynthia M. Pelini: Declaration of Cynthia M. Pelini in Support of Protostar's Chapter 11 Petitions and Various First Day Applications And Motions. (PDF, 48 pages, 2 MB) 2009, p. 7 , accessed on October 25, 2012 (English).
  4. ↑ Loral to convert unlaunched ChinaSat-8 for ProtoStar. Spaceflight Now, January 7, 2007, accessed October 19, 2012 .
  5. ^ Boeing Awarded Contract for Direct-to-Home Entertainment Satellite. In: spaceref.com. Boeing, January 14, 2008, accessed October 19, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Gunter Krebs: Indostar 2 / ProtoStar 2 → SES 7. In: Gunter's Space Page. March 8, 2012, accessed October 24, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Integral Awarded Contract to Provide ProtoStar-II Ground Segment. PRNewswire, April 22, 2008, archived from the original on January 9, 2017 ; accessed on October 19, 2012 (English).
  8. ↑ Stephen Clark: Proton rocket launches TV broadcaster for Asia. Spaceflight Now, May 16, 2009, accessed May 17, 2009 .
  9. ↑ Peter De Selding: ITU Denies Request for Extension of Protostar-1 deadline. Space News, July 28, 2008.
  10. ^ ProtoStar and Intersputnik Finalize Joint Orbital Location Services Agreement. ProtoStar, September 5, 2008, accessed October 25, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Peter B. de Selding: Protostar in Chapter 11, Looking To Unload Satellites. Space News, July 31, 2009, accessed October 25, 2012 .
  12. ^ ProtoStar files for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States District Court for the district of Delaware. ProtoStar, July 31, 2009, accessed October 25, 2012 .
  13. ↑ Cynthia M. Pelini: Consolidated List of Creditors Holding 20 Largest Unsecured Claims. (PDF; 0.6 MB) 2009, accessed on October 25, 2012 (English).
  14. ↑ Thomas Weyrauch: Intelsat buys Protostar 1. raumfahrer.net, October 31, 2009, accessed on October 19, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Peter B. de Selding: SES Beats Out Rival AsiaSat in Auction for Protostar 2 satellite. Space News, December 17, 2009, accessed October 25, 2012 .
  16. ↑ Company Overview of ProtoStar Ltd. Bloomberg Business Week, archived from the original on January 18, 2013 ; accessed on October 25, 2012 .
  17. ↑ Marcia Breen: Kiskadee-Protostar $ 18m lawsuit is dismissed. The Royal Gazette, March 12, 2012, accessed October 25, 2012 .