[Satellite Today 05-27-09] SkyTerra has exercised an option with International Launch Services (ILS) to move the launch of the SkyTerra 2 satellite from Sea Launch to ILS, a SkyTerra spokesman confirmed.
    ILS announced May 22 that it would launch the SkyTerra 2 satellite in late 2010. The launch provider already had been under contract to place the SkyTerra 1 satellite in orbit.
    SkyTerra notified Sea Launch May 19 of its intentioned to terminate its contract for “material breach of its Launch Services Agreement,” according to a May 22 SkyTerra filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SkyTerra may also seek $12 million already paid to Sea Launch under the agreement, SkyTerra said.
    SkyTerra, then known as Mobile Satellite Ventures, awarded contracts in May 2007 to ILS and Sea Launch for the launch of the spacecraft. The ILS agreement was for a single firm launch priced at $89 million and included a $93 million option for a second launch. Sea Launch was awarded an $86 million contract for the second launch.
The total price for the two ILS launches will be $175.5 million, SkyTerra said in the filing.
    “The ILS and Khrunichev partnership has the flexibility to support our demanding schedule,” Alexander Good, chairman, CEO and president of SkyTerra, said in a statement.  “We selected ILS/Proton because we have confidence in their ability to meet our upcoming launch schedule requirements.
    The two spacecraft, under construction by Boeing Co., are designed to provide broadband wireless coverage of North and Central America.