SES Americom conducted the last operations on the Satcom C1 satellite, safely de-orbiting the satellite more than 280 km beyond the geosynchronous orbital belt, the company announced May 2.

The satellite, launched in November 1990, exceeded its design life of 8.5 years by more than 60 percent due to efficient management of on-board fuel, SES Americom said

RCA Astro Space, now Lockheed Martin, built the satellite, which carried 24 C-band transponders and provided service over the continental United States for 10 years before being reassigned to a trans-Atlantic location.

“Satcom C1 was a valuable spacecraft in our fleet and provided consistent services to a great variety of customers,” SES Americom Vice President of space systems and operations Dany Harel said in a prepared statement. “It’s a terrific reflection on the quality of the spacecraft, as well as the quality of the team that operated C1, that we could depend on it for so long.”