PanAmSat Corporation’s latest spacecraft, the PAS-1R Atlantic Ocean Region satellite, has arrived in Kourou, French Guiana in preparation for its ‘historic’ lift-off in mid November.

“The deployment of PAS-1R marks a major milestone for PanAmSat as it replaces PAS-1, the communications satellite placed in orbit 12 years ago to launch the multi-billion dollar commercial international satellite communications industry, ” said the company in a statement. “Before the launch of PAS-1 in June 1988, international satellite communications services were controlled by a global government-run satellite monopoly.”

PAS-1R, when launched from the Guyana Space Centre on November 14, will support PanAmSat customers with a range of powerful new transponders that will deliver video, data and Internet services to the Americas, Europe and Africa. PAS-1R will become PanAmSat’s will be its twenty second spacecraft worldwide.

The advanced PAS-1R satellite will be capable of delivering dozens of cable television channels throughout Latin America as well as broadcasting billions of bits of digital video and data throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. The spacecraft will also support PanAmSat’s current and future Internet initiatives in those regions, delivering broadband US backbone access to rural and remote areas and broadcasting Internet content to potentially thousands of locations simultaneously.

Upon service commencement, PAS-1R will debut with a diverse customer line-up, showcasing its ability to deliver a broad range of services throughout Latin America for video, direct-to-home, telecommunications and Internet customers. Among the customers lining up are ImpSat, Cisneros Television Group, Telefonica Mundo, Telefonica Data Colombia, Rey Moreno, Citibank, Reuters, Zona Franca Montevideo, Latinet, Suratel, Vitacom and Galaxy Latin America.