The satellite transmitted a signal to Sea Launch approximately 30 minutes after liftoff to inform the companies that it reached its geosynchronous transfer orbit, from which it will transition to its final orbital location at 302 degrees East following testing.

   The latest satellite launch was Sea Launch’s second of its three planned missions in 2012. Sea Launch successfully placed the Intelsat 19 satellite into orbit from its oceanic platform on the Equator in late May. The Intelsat 19 satellite was designed by Space Systems/Loral to serve Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. West Coast with satellite communications.

   Intelsat 21 is an important part of Intelsat’s fleet replacement and expansion plans and is scheduled to start service later this year, replacing Intelsat-9.

   “Intelsat 21 will refresh capacity for one of Latin America’s most popular media distribution neighborhoods, serving the continent’s leading DTH and cable programmers,” Sea Launch President Kjell Karlsen said in a statement.

   Manufacturer Boeing built the satellite based on its 702MP platform, with specific designs to refresh Intelsat’s capacity for one of Latin America’s most popular media distribution neighborhoods.

   The operator will use Intelsat 21 to provide C-band services for North America, South America and Europe, and Ku-band services for North America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Europe. The new satellite also features a Ku-band mobility beam that will provide coverage across the South Atlantic to Intelsat’s maritime and aeronautical customers. Intelsat’s global mobility platform is scheduled for completion in early 2013.

   In June, the operator announced its rollout plan and long-term vision for its Intelsat EpicNG satellite open architecture platform and next-generation satellite series. Intelsat EpicNG incorporates a high-performance and high throughput design with operational features such as frequency flexibility, open architecture and backward compatibility of ground hardware. The company signed a number of deals since the announcement of the platform with Panasonic Avionics, Harris CapRock and MTN Satellite Communications.

   “In the second quarter, Intelsat achieved steady financial performance while embarking upon a new era in our continuing industry leadership,” Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade said in a statement. “Near-term, our 2012-2013 launch program will provide valuable growth capacity and also include the final phase of deployment of our global broadband mobility infrastructure. As these satellites enter service, our business will benefit from demand for fixed and mobile applications serving media, government and network services customers. Given the timing of this expansion capacity being added to our fleet, revenue growth in the second half of 2012 is expected to begin to accelerate modestly; total year 2012 revenue results are expected to be slightly positive as compared to 2011.”