Atlas V Appears To Have Performed Flawlessly

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."

FMI: www.ses-americom.com