After going a year without landing a new commercial satellite order, Boeing Co. hit it big Wednesday when DirecTV placed an order for three to provide highdefinition TV programs across the United States.
The order is potentially worth more than $750 million to Boeing, analysts said, representing one of the biggest deals since the commercial satellite industry went into a tailspin after several highprofile telecommunication companies collapsed.
‘‘In this market environment, an order for three is huge,’’ said Marco Caceres, a space analyst for the Teal Group. ‘‘No one has gotten an order like this in years.’’
Boeing was once the world’s largest satellite marker. Last year, it cited the weakest satellite market in decades when it took a $1.1 billion charge, and in recent years it has slashed the work force at its Satellite Systems unit in El Segundo, Calif., by nearly half to about 5,000. The DirecTV order is ‘‘great news,’’ said Dave Ryan, the general manager in El Segundo.
Wednesday’s order for the satellites would allow DirecTV to provide more than 1,000 high-definition channels to customers in all 50 states, DirecTV said.
