SES Americom Orders Additional Spacecraft from Orbital

(Princeton, NJ & Dulles, VA., April 8, 2008) -- SES AMERICOM and Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), announced today the order of a third spacecraft under the multi-satellite contract both companies announced in May 2007. Under this contract, the first and second satellites ordered were AMC-5R and a ground spare. That ground spare will now become AMC-1R, and a new ground spare will be produced for a future use.

Planned for launch in the second half of 2009, AMC-1R will have a permanent home in geosynchronous Earth orbit at 103 degrees West longitude.

"The strength of our relationship with Orbital and the efficiencies of the multi-spacecraft agreement permit SES to provide a distinctly high level of mission certainty. Our connections with our customers are underscored by continually meeting and exceeding their expectations for reliability and quality of service. This combination of mutually beneficial supplier-customer-operator relationships, and the operational excellence that it forges, powers AMERICOM's superior performance," said Ed Horowitz, President and CEO, SES AMERICOM.

"Our close collaboration with SES in defining standardized spacecraft requirements for multiple satellites is enabling us to produce, deliver and launch one of our STAR spacecraft in under 24 months," stated Mr. Mike Larkin, Orbital's Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Space Systems Group. "This process highlights one of Orbital's major competitive advantages, which is our ability to deliver a GEO satellite in two years or less," he added.

Source : Orbital Sciences Corp.

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