- - - EchoStar 5 Ready For Launch - - -

EchoStar 5 will launch on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS rocket early Wednesday morning, at 1:08 Eastern Time, from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida.

The launch was postponed to allow engineers time to analyze an avionics unit that failed factory testing. Rocket crews also had to prepare for weather associated with Hurricane Floyd. Since then, the avionics unit, part of the Atlas launch vehicle control system, has been cleared and the hurricane passed without causing any damage to the rocket.

EchoStar's fifth satellite will add 150 more channels to the existing 350 channels available on its DISH Network DBS service. EchoStar wants to use a single small dish pointed at both its 110 degree and the 119 degree orbital slots to deliver around 500 channels.

- - - Hughes Unit To Eliminate 450 Jobs - - -

Hughes Space and Communications, the satellite building arm of Hughes Electronics, said it will eliminate 450 jobs to offset slowing demand for satellites from customers in Asia and Latin America.

The layoffs, which amount to about 5 percent of the company's workforce, will take effect in mid-November, said Hughes spokesman Don O'Neal. Pink slips were handed out last week.

The satellite market has flattened in recent months, he said, largely due to financial challenges in Asia and South America.

Hughes also was hurt by the cancellation of a contract to build a new telecommunications satellite for a consortium of Asian nations, including China. Hughes withdrew its export application for the satellite and took a $450 million loss on the deal after the State Department raised concerns the project could benefit the Chinese army.

- - - Anstrom To DBS: Be Careful What You Wish For - - -

Weather Channel President Decker Anstrom warned the DBS industry against allowing the government to get directly involved in its business, especially when it comes to lobbying for new satellite TV legislation.

Anstrom, the former head of the National Cable Television Association, said the satellite industry should push Congress to pass a "pro-competitive bill for consumers and then get out of the way.

"Trust the market. Resist to urge government intervention in these markets," he said at last week's SkyFORUM symposium in New York City. "You don't want government to regulate competitors or suppliers. Once it gets into the marketplace, it doesn't discriminate."

Legislation covering everything from local-into-local channels to distant network signals is pending before Congress. It's expected that a conference committee of House and Senate members will move on a bill sometime in October.

- - - Iridium Bankruptcy Moves To New York - - -

Financially strained sat-phone company Iridium has moved its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings from Delaware to New York.

The move, approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court officials in Manhattan, is seen as a concession to Iridium's bondholders. The company filed for bankruptcy last month in Delaware, soon after bondholders sought an involuntary filing in New York.

Bondholders who filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Iridium include Alliance Capital Management, Conseco Capital Management, Canyon Capital Advisors, Magten Partners and Wall Financial Investments.

- - - SkyBOX: The Company That Brought Us Iridium - - -

So now Motorola, the company that brought us Iridium, plans to buy major cable manufacturer General Instrument. Hmmm.

On one hand we have a cell phone (among other things) giant that helped start Iridium partly to boost its position in satellite sales and partly to push equipment, a service- and customers-be-damned approach that blew up into today.s spectacular, but not exactly surprising, bankruptcy.

On the other we have General Instrument, the perennially behind-schedule cable manufacturer that, in satellite at least, is best known for its callous disregard for, but enormous profits from, the C-Band platform.

A marriage made in heaven? Not if you.re a customer. Not if you.re an investor either. Wall Street signaled a giant thumbs down on the proposal, shaving GI shares by -9.15% and Motorola by -7.25% across the week.

Speaking of GI, we hear that cable.s King Leo not too long ago told the equipment czar, and its chief competitor, Scientific Atlanta, to meet their schedules. Or else. Cablevision, for its part, has cut a new deal with Sony (which passed on buying GI).

Meanwhile, in satellite, top programmers are seething about near catastrophic C-Band equipment shortages and GI.s refusal to divulge its planned runs. This despite the fact that the San Diego/Horsham biggee is the ONLY 4DTV manufacturer.

Arrogant? Yep. Short-sighted? That too.

- - - PEOPLE: - - -

• SBCA Recognizes DTH Pioneers - The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association awarded two pioneers for their contributions at last week's SkyFORUM. Receiving the Arthur C. Clarke Award was Dr. Woo H. Paik, senior executive vice president and chief technology officer at LG Electronics. Paik is credited for numerous developments in digital TV and satellite communications. The Chairman's Award was announced by the SBCA and will be presented to Stanley E. Hubbard during November's board of directors meeting. Hubbard was president and CEO of U.S. Satellite Broadcasting, which was bought by DirecTV earlier in the year.

• CBS Engineering Chief Joins XM Radio -
  Anthony J. Masiello will join XM Satellite Radio as vice president of broadcast operations. Masiello, who has more than 28 years experience in radio engineering, will oversee the construction of XM's state-of-the-art multi-studio programming complex. Most recently Masiello served as vice president of technical operations for CBS Radio Networks.

• GlobalTrak's New President Comes From O.J. Infamy -
  Fred Goldman will join GlobalTrak International as president. He will direct the company it continues to develop personal satellite tracking devices. Goldman, whose son Ron Goldman was murdered five years ago along with Nicole Brown Simpson, considers safety issues to be a top priority.

• New Analyst at Banc of America -
  Banc of America Securities has hired Doug Shapiro as principal and senior research analyst covering the cable sector. Shapiro will lead the firm's broadband communications services equity research effort.

• Network Executive To Lead Replay Networks -
  Replay Networks has selected Kim LeMasters as chairman and CEO. LeMasters is best known for his career at CBS Television, which culminated in his being named president of CBS Entertainment in 1987. California-based Replay Networks is a leader in personal television technologies.