Talk:Intelsat

Move to Intelsat?
I think this article should be moved to Intelsat, since that’s the most commonly used, and currently official name. —Fleminra 17:13, July 27, 2005 (UTC)
 * Done. —Fleminra 23:53, August 12, 2005 (UTC)

Privatized ∴ no more government members
TODO: Many articles that link here say “country x is a member of Intelsat”, which is no longer true since Intelsat is no longer an intergovernmental organzation, but a private company (c.f. CIA factbook ca. 1999 vs. 2005). Those articles need to be edited. —Fleminra 23:53, August 12, 2005 (UTC)

The Reason It Is In Washington
I'm not so sure about this sentence: "This arrangement allows the company to lobby politicians in Washington while filing tax from Bermuda."

I'm pretty sure the reason that Intelsat's main offices and operations are in Washington DC is because it was an international treaty organization. Their building, on Connecticut Ave NW, is designed to look like a giant satellite, and was build in the mid-eighties. Before privatization, it was administered by the State Department; everything from parking permits to the color and type of shades used on the windows was regulated by functionaries from State. After privatizing, they weren't about to just move out of their million-dollar building.

Besides, lots of companies lobby Washington with their own lobbying offices in DC, while being incorporated elsewhere (like Delaware) and operating still elsewhere; in fact one could make an argument that being located entirely in the District puts Intelsat at a disadvantage with Congress because DC has no congressional representation (ie, no Senators or congressman to go to bat for the home-town company).

Frankly I think this whole article is poorly written and could use a clean-up; and contains a few too many possibly POV sentences like the one above (like the whole paragraph about their reliability in the sixties...were they more or less reliable than other satellite operators?) There's lots missing, too, that's interesting: nothing about their long relationship with COMSAT; nothing about their unique staffing when they were a treaty organization (engineers from all over the world on special diplomatic visas, living tax-free in the US) and nothing about the process of privatizing (like having special legislation passed to allow them to privatize; and still more special legislation to convert those aforementioned diplomatic visas into H1-B's). There's also a little too much satellite-industry jargon--blocks?

Thoughts? --Free-world 02:32, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

INTELSAT's Main office was located in Washington DC, because it was leased or given the land by the US Government for some minimal fee per year (like $1?). They thought about locating it in New York at the UN, or nearby, but for some reason it landed in DC.

The Connecticut Ave (NW Washington DC) Headquarters building was designed to look like a space station. If you happen to get inside, there are semi rectangular (really octagons with 4 short side and 4 long sides) "pods". These "pods" are the different sections you see from out side. The interior of each pod is an open atrium, extending up from the ground floor for that level, to a greenhouse like roof, with a central column staircase, and radiating bridges to each floor. It does remind one of some of the space station drawings from the 50's and 60's.

--DNJH 20:56 18 Nov 2008

Fair use rationale for Image:Logo level 2 nav.gif
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BetacommandBot 05:26, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Thor (0.8°) 1° west
Thor (0.8°) 1° west is also belong to Intelsat. http://www.flysat.com/1west-beam.php http://www.lyngsat.com/1west.html

Nope, Thor 6 is owned by Telenor Satellite Broadcasting http://space.skyrocket.de/index_frame.htm?http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/thor-6.htm

Satellite history
Intelsat satellite history is being added and updated with factual information. dnjh (talk) 04:20, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

EADS Astrium manufactured Intelsat 10-02. The name of the EADS Astrium platform is EUROSTAR 3000, not Spacebus (reference can be found on the official company website at www.eads.net) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.75.38.139 (talk) 03:54, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Under the Launch Vehicles section it is claimed that Intelsat 35e launched on the first flight of the Falcon Heavy. This is incorrect as that rocket has not yet flown. It was launched on a Falcon 9 Full Thrust in expendable mode, the uprated thrust and expendable profile provided the necessary additional energy to launch the satellite without needing the performance of the Falcon Heavy.

INTELSAT logo 1973 to 1998 wrong start date
I don't know the correct start date for this logo, but I do know it was well after 1973, probably closer to 1993. I'm not sure about the end date. The earlier logo was the word INTELSAT with orbits and satellites circling around it. 72.84.142.21 (talk) 00:36, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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Updating on the early intergovernmental history of INTELSAT/Intelsat -- long before commercialization of the entity by that name
Made some substantive additions to the History section today, to better reflect the early intergovernmental history of INTELSAT/Intelsat. Most of this sort of info seems to be missing, in part perhaps, 'cause Intelsat, SA was a private entity by the time Wikipedia was invented and this article was written. Would appreciate it if another editor would give it a serious read, and maybe take a look at the two source journal articles, to review. Cheers. N2e (talk) 02:42, 5 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Found another source that could be explored to improve the article: The Legal Commitment of the United States to the INTELSAT System, 1989, in the NC Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, Vo. 14, NNo.2, Article 3, Spring 1989. alternate link  This one seems to have only been online on the internet since 2017.  Great to have these sources getting published outside the paywall journal system.


 * This article has particularly interesting information about the deregulation of space telecommunications (and fiber optic and other telecomm infrastructure, in the mid and late 1980s)N2e (talk) 18:53, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

Largest user
"Intelsat, established in August 1964, was the largest user of NASA communications launch services." (pp. 12–13) A neat factoid maybe.  TheTechnician27  (Talk page)  22:33, 16 August 2023 (UTC)