International Launch Services (ILS) will launch the DIRECTV 8 satellite in the spring of 2005 on a Proton M/Breeze M vehicle, under a new contract with DIRECTV. Financial details were not disclosed.
“The Proton vehicle is the workhorse of the launch industry, and this year could have as many as 10 missions for ILS and the Russian government combined,” said ILS President Mark Albrecht.
“We welcome DIRECTV back to Proton, and we look forward to working with the DIRECTV Group.”
This will be the third DIRECTV satellite to launch on an ILS vehicle. ILS, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin of the United States and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia, offers launches on the American Atlas and the Russian Proton vehicles.
The DIRECTV 2 satellite was launched on an Atlas rocket in August 1994, and DIRECTV 5 was carried by a Proton rocket in May 2002. The DIRECTV 8 satellite is a 1300 model built by Space Systems/Loral, similar to DIRECTV 5.
The DIRECTV 8 contract is the ninth announced by ILS in 2004.
