Sea Launch signed a firm launch contract with Intelsat to loft a satellite into orbit next year.
The company will loft the Intelsat Americas-9 (IA-9) spacecraft sometime between October-December 2007, a bird now under construction at Space Systems/Loral in California.
This is the first time that Sea Launch has placed a satellite in orbit for Intelsat, the first one being IA-8 in June 2005.
"We are proud to welcome back Intelsat for another Sea Launch mission," said Rob Peckham, interim president and general manager of Sea Launch. "We view this new contract as a testament to Intelsat’s confidence in our launch system and our team. We won’t let them down."
The IA-9 spacecraft is a high-powered, C-band and Ku-band satellite that will provide communications service to North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Intelsat currently plans to operate the satellite from an orbital location at 97 degrees West longitude. IA-9 will become Intelsat’s newest satellite covering North America.
As communications have risen steadily, this has placed ever-greater demands on available communications satellites and available bandwidth, prompting a move to increase the number of orbiting receiver-transmission stations.