Protostar Ltd.,a Bermuda-based corporation with principal U.S. operations in San Francisco, worked closer to its Asian satellite service by successfully closing on $210 million in financing to purchase and launch its first satellite.

Preceded by a $40 million series-B round completed earlier in the year for a total cumulative financing of $250 million, Protostar’s initial plan is to create a three-satellite constellation serving a fast-growing and under-served Asian direct-to-home satellite-TV market.

Protostar plans to use the proceeds to purchase and launch its first geostationary satellite, significant capacity for which has already been pre-leased, according to the company. Definitive agreements with China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corporation are in place to purchase a completed but unlaunched satellite and with Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications Inc., to tailor the satellite’s components for the proposed footprint over Asia. The satellite, renamed Prostar-1, is expected for completion and launch in early 2008.