ILS Marks First Year as Independent Company with $1.5 Bn in New Proton Business
(McLean, Va., January 8, 2008) -- International Launch Services (ILS) brought in $1.5 billion in new launch orders in 2007, its first year as an independent company marketing the Proton Breeze M vehicle.
This total represents contracts for 17 launches on Proton, Russia's premier heavy-lift launcher, through 2013. ILS has exclusive rights to market the Proton vehicle worldwide to commercial satellite operators. Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, one of the cornerstones of the Russian space industry, manufactures the Proton and is in a partnership with ILS.
"This was a good start in 2007," said ILS President Frank McKenna.
"We set a focus on performance in all aspects. We work hard to earn the confidence of not only existing customers, but also of new entrants who are entrusting the launch of their businesses to us.
"We also introduced our Enhanced Proton, with excellent results,"
McKenna said. "With a lift capability of greater than 6 metric tons, the Enhanced Proton is robust enough for the larger, more complex satellites our customers are building for such new services as HDTV and mobile entertainment." The Proton launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The new orders include the following, resulting in a total ILS backlog of 22 firm missions:
- A fifth-generation Arabsat satellite - 5A or 5B;
- Ciel 2, contracted through SES AMERICOM for Ciel Satellite Group;
- CMBStar for EchoStar;
- Another mission for EchoStar;
- One Eutelsat "W" mission;
- Inmarsat 4F3;
- Nimiq 5 for Telesat;
- MSV-1 for Mobile Satellite Ventures and option for MSV-2;
- ProtoStar II;
- YahSat 1A or 1B;
- Two launches for two unnamed customers; and
- A five-launch agreement with SES, which is the largest single contract to date for ILS.
ILS launched three satellites successfully in 2007 - Anik F3 for Telesat on April 9; DIRECTV 10 on July 7; and SIRIUS-4 for SES SIRIUS on Nov. 18. ILS also suffered a loss with the failure of the JCSAT-11 Sept. 6. Khrunichev traced the problem to a damaged wiring harness. Proton returned to flight successfully in October with a federal mission, then again in November for ILS, and two more times in December for the Russian government - four Proton launches in two months!
"Proton launches will continue at tempo of about one a month for
2008 and into 2009," McKenna said. "To facilitate that, a new satellite processing area is being built this year to enable overlapping ILS campaigns. Additionally, ILS is the only commercial launch operator with access to two launch pads."
Source : International Launch Services
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