Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) awarded contracts to International Launch Services Inc. (ILS) and Sea Launch Co. to launch next-generation satellites, ILS and Sea Launch announced May 15.
 
The ILS agreement is for a 2009 single firm launch and includes an option for a second launch. That MSV spacecraft is planned to launch aboard a Proton/Breeze M vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Sea Launch plans a 2010 launch using a Zenit-3SL vehicle lifting off from a floating platform at the equator near the Pacific Ocean island of Kiribati.
 
MSV’s satellites, under construction by Boeing Co., are designed to provide broadband wireless coverage of North and Central America.