Against the pre-dawn sky from Cape Canaveral, the AMERICOM-16
satellite roared into space onboard an Atlas V launch vehicle from
Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Saturday
morning at 0707 Eastern Time. After 109 minutes, the spacecraft
separated from the Centaur upper stage and was placed into
geostationary transfer orbit. Initial signals were received from
the satellite at 0941 ET.
The hybrid Ku- and Ka-band satellite will begin payload and
performance testing at 82 degrees West. It is anticipated that
AMC-16 will be ready to support the transmission of high-speed data
and digital video services throughout the US for the
AMERICOM2Home(R) customer EchoStar DISH Network during the first
quarter of 2005.
"We are delighted that AMC-16 has been successfully launched;
our heartiest congratulations first to Lockheed Martin for
delivering a great spacecraft and to International Launch Services
for this morning's picture-perfect launch. AMC-16 is the second
satellite platform we are putting into operation dedicated to
EchoStar Communications Corp.'s DISH Network satellite TV service,"
said Anders Johnson, Senior Vice President of Strategic Satellite
Initiatives, SES AMERICOM.
"This is record-setting in the number of times we have launched
for a single customer in a calendar year," said ILS President Mark
Albrecht. "SES AMERICOM is a 'platinum customer,' one with which we
have a long-standing relationship and have seen many launches. We
look forward to continuing our ties with the launch of WS-2 in
early 2005."
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