INTELSAT VI—A continuing evolution

In early 1982, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) awarded a contract to the Hughes Aircraft Company for a new generation of communications satellites. The INTELSAT VI satellites are the largest, most sophisticated commercial communications satellites ever built. Their major technological challenges include a six-fold reuse of the 6/4-GHz frequency spectrum and the introduction of satellite-switched TDMA. The INTELSAT VI satellites are designed to become the backbone of the INTELSAT system in the late 1980s and early 1990s.