Posted: Wed, May 10, 2006, 8:27 AM ET (1227 GMT)
The multinational Sea Launch venture has won contracts this week for the launch of two commercial communications satellites. Sea Launch announced Monday that it has signed a contract to launch the EchoStar 11 satellite on a Zenit 3SL in 2007. The contract, according to the statement, was actually signed in November 2005, but was not announced until this week. EchoStar 11 is a Space Systems/Loral-built satellite that will be part of EchoStar's fleet of direct broadcasting satellites. AsiaSat announced Tuesday that it signed a contract with Sea Launch for the launch of its AsiaSat 5 spacecraft using the Land Launch service in the second half of 2008. Land Launch uses a variant of the Zenit 3, Zenit 3SLB, launched from Baikonur. AsiaSat signed a satellite manufacturing contract with SS/L last week.

Related Links:

•  Space News article (subscription required)
•  Sea Launch press release about EchoStar 11
•  AsiaSat press release