Posted: Fri, Feb 12, 2010, 7:49 AM ET (1249 GMT)
International Launch Services announced Thursday that it will perform next year its first launch of a pair of communications satellites. A Proton-M next year will launch the SES-3 satellite for European satellite operator SES and the Kazsat-2 satellite for Kazakhstan. The launch will be the first time ILS has launched two satellites on a single Proton, although a non-commercial Proton last year launched two Express communications satellites for Russian operator RSCC. ILS has been studying for some time the ability to do dual launches of small Orbital-built communications satellites, although for this deal only SES-3 is built by Orbital; Kazsat-2 is built by Khrunichev, who also manufactures the Proton.

Related Links:

•  Space News article
•  ILS press release