"We are very pleased to be selected as the supplier of these satellites to GE Americom," said Peter Kujawski, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. "In our highly competitive industry, Lockheed Martin's edge is our ability to deliver advanced, high performance products at an attractive price to blue-chip customers like GE Americom."

The new spacecraft -- GE-6, GE-7, GE-8 and GE-9 -- will be used to serve the expanding needs of GE Americom's customers, providing satellite distribution of broadcast and cable television programming. GE-6, scheduled for launch in the fall of 2000, will supplement domestic coverage by GE-1, 2, and 3 currently on orbit, and GE-4 after its late 1999 launch.

The hybrid C/Ku-band GE-6 will be a very large A2100 satellite. In contrast, GE-7, GE-8 and GE-9 will be based on the smallest A2100 bus platform available, offering GE Americom highly cost-effective, small satellites.

GE-7, scheduled for launch in early 2000, will provide C-band telecommunications coverage for GE Americom clients. GE-8 will provide backup coverage for GE Americom's domestic telecommunications satellite fleet. GE-9 will be used as a back-up satellite for GE-7 and GE-8 and is planned for launch in early 2001.

"We take great pride in offering our customers the highest transponder availability in the industry. Our work with Lockheed Martin on the design and construction of our satellites has contributed to this success" said John Connelly, chairman and chief executive officer for GE Americom.

"The four new satellites will give us the capacity we need to meet the bandwidth and coverage demands of our customers' expanding applications and replace retiring spacecraft with more powerful and efficient capacity."

The first A2100s were designed with and built for GE Americom. The hybrid C/Ku-band GE-4 and all Ku-band GE-1A satellites are currently in production at the Lockheed Martin Commercial Satellite Center, one of the largest, most efficient facilities in the industry. Based in Sunnyvale, CA, the center's co-located assembly and test facilities dramatically reduce the production cycle and can accommodate up to 16 satellites each year.

The A2100's geosynchronous spacecraft is designed to meet a wide variety of telecommunications needs ranging from fixed satellite services in a hybrid Ku- and C-bands payload configuration to high power direct broadcast services using the Ku-band frequency spectrum.

The A2100's modular design features a reduction in parts, simplifying construction, increasing on-orbit reliability and reducing weight and cost. The A2100 bus is produced entirely from composite materials, which makes it stronger and lighter than other bus designs and reduces launch costs. The composite structure also protects the payload from thermal distortions.

A2100 Fact Sheeet

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
The successful launch Thursday of India's heaviest satellite from spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana may have boosted the country's space research efforts to yet another level, but it has also lifted the spirits of at least three Direct-To-Home televisions broadcasters, one of which has been waiting for years to launch its services in India.