Posted: Thu, Sep 23, 2004, 10:30 AM ET (1430 GMT)
The multinational Sea Launch venture has won a contract to launch PanAmSat's Galaxy 16 spacecraft, Boeing announced Wednesday. A Sea Launch Zenit 3SL will launch the spacecraft into geosynchronous orbit in 2006. Galaxy 16 is a Space Systems/Loral 1300-series spacecraft, weighing 4,700 kg. It will have 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders and provide communications services for North America. The contract is the second launch deal announced by Sea Launch to date this year; the venture reported in March that it will launch an Inmarsat satellite in 2005, with the option for a second launch. The last Zenit 3SL launch, in June, encountered problems when the upper stage shut down prematurely, placing the Telstar 18 payload into a lower-than-planned orbit. The spacecraft was able to reach its final orbit without any loss of mission lifetime because of extra propellant reserves onboard the spacecraft. Sea Launch officials said they have identified and corrected the problem and plan their next launch, of the Intelsat IA-8 spacecraft, in November.

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•  TelecomWeb article
•  Boeing press release