Mr. Fitzpatrick noted that the Hughes Spaceway program was built on the foundation established by ACTS. He said:

"What ACTS has done is really significant. It's made believers out of people who thought Ka-band would never work. That helped me convince the Board of Directors of Hughes to invest 1.5 billion dollars in the Spaceway program. I'd like to think that Spaceway will be an extension of what you have started here with ACTS. By taking advantage of the pioneering concepts which the NASA-industry team on ACTS developed, we are able to lower the cost point and make satellite communications available to small businesses, as well as large businesses, and even consumers."

"What the ACTS program has done is open up a new chapter in communications and we're pleased to be a part of it."

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