significant expansions in commercial satellite capacity, Intelsat was on its way to become part of the competitive private telecommunications industry, and had started to get competition from the likes of PanAmSat in the United States, which, ironically, was then bought by its archrival in 2005.

When Intelsat was launched, the United States was the only launch source outside of the Soviet Union, who did not participate in the Intelsat agreements. The Soviet Union