Galaxy 4 and 7 were configured to provide coverage to all 50 United States plus the
Caribbean basin, with a signal strength of 36 dBW in C-band and 45 dBW in Ku-band across
the contiguous United States.
Galaxy IV was launched 24 June 1993, on an Ariane-42P H10+ rocket from Kourou,
French Guiana. Galaxy VII was launched Oct. 27, 1992, aboard an Ariane-42P H10+ rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.
The spacecraft is a version of the three-axis, body-stabilized Hughes HS-601 model built by Hughes Space and Communications
Company (HSC) in El Segundo, Calif.
On 19 May 1998, Galaxy IV suffered an on-board failure in its spacecraft control
processor, the first operating Hughes satellite to suffer such a failure in orbit. The
spare control processor was unavailable due to earlier unrelated damage that had not
previously been detected. PanAmSat has taken the spacecraft out of service, seven years
short of its intended 12-year operational life.
On 13 June 1998, there was a brief shut-down of a portion of the C-band capacity on
Galaxy VII that was accompanied by the failure of the primary on-board spacecraft control
processor (SCP.) Control of the satellite was automatically switched to the spare control
processor and the spacecraft was operating normally. Since then, Galaxy VII was used as
backup satellite, providing occasional services in the United States. On 22 November 2000,
the secondary SCP failed. The satellite was declared a total loss.
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