Intelsat 31 Scheduled for May 28 Launch

Intelsat 31 is scheduled to launch May 28, and Intelsat asked the FCC International Bureau for special temporary authority starting June 4 to do in-orbit testing at 76.5 degrees west and to drift it to its permanent home at 95.05 degrees west. The drift is expected to take about three weeks, Intelsat said in its IB filing Wednesday. The company said it's in coordination discussions with Arsat, DirecTV, SES, Star One and Venesat, all of which have co-frequency/co-coverage satellites within six degrees of 76.5 degrees west, and expects to have them complete before launch.