 On 19 September 2003 the Telstar 402R satellite used by AlphaStar from 1996-1997, renamed Telstar 4, experienced a circuit failure in its primary power bus and was declared a total loss.Originally broadcasting on Telstar 402R in the Ku-band, AlphaStar was in the process of transitioning to the newly launched Telstar 5 satellite and 120 channel service when the company initiated bankruptcy proceedings.A satellite uplink facility in Oxford, Connecticut was used to uplink the AlphaStar service.