ILS launches ICO satellite, lands more contracts
The Lockheed Martin-led ILS International Launch Services has launched two Boeing-built communications satellites in three days and received two launch orders for its Atlas V.
An ILS Atlas IIAS flew from Cape Canaveral on 19 June, carrying the first spacecraft built by Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS) for ICO Global Communications. An earlier ICO satellite was lost in a Sea Launch failure last year. The Astra 2C communications satellite, built for Luxembourg's Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES), was launched by an ILS Russian Proton booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 16 June.
Both satellites are based on the successful Boeing 601 spacecraft bus. The ICO spacecraft is intended to provide third-generation (3G) wireless services, including mobile voice, wireless Internet and other packet-data services. ILS has won contracts for two commercial launches on its new Atlas V. ILS president Mark Albrecht put the value of the contracts value at $150-200 million but declined to identify the customers. The first Atlas V will be launched in mid-2002 and will complement the Atlas III series.
Source: Flight Daily News