The US Ex-Im bank has provided two major loans to support a satellite construction and launch deal involving the US space industry, It has announced that it wll provide a loan of $171.3 million to Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) of Hong Kong to complete construction of the communications ABS-2 which is currently being constructed by US/Canadian firm Space Systems/Loral for use in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO).
The Ex-Im Bank is also providing a loan of $289.7 million to construct, launch and insure, two smaller ABS spacecraft, ABS-2A and ABS-3A, currently being constructed by Boeing using their new all-electric BSS 702SP design. This design makes use electric propulsion to transfer the spacecraft to GEO meaning that much less fuel can be carried. As a result the very light spacecraft are able to be launched cost effectively as part of shared launches on SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicles..
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