LOS ANGELES A communications satellite delivering television, telephone and digital pager service spun out of control on Tuesday, cutting off service to tens of millions of Americans. The Galaxy 4 satellite, operated by PANAMSAT of Greenwich, Connecticut, a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics Corp., apparently began spinning out of its geosynchronous orbit in the early evening, effectively pulling the plug on millions of pagers.

Television news feeds were also affected. Estimates from digital pager services said that between 20 million and 45 million pagers were out of service across the United States. Spokesmen for Hughes Electronics and PANAMSAT declined comment. The satellite, tilted away from the Earth at 6:13 p.m. EDT (2213 GMT), turning it into a floating hulk of useless circuits and transponders that were not expected to be functioning until Wednesday morning.

A technician at PANAMSAT, who refused to give her name, said, The companies are still attempting to regain attitude control. This was a reference to the system that controls the direction in which the satellite's antenna points. Currently we do not have control of either primary or back-up automatic attitude control units, but we are still communicating with the satellites, the technician told Reuters. (Reuters)