Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) has announced the SES-1satellite, built by the company for SES WORLD SKIES, was successfully launched into orbit aboard an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission started on Saturday, April 24, with the lift-off of the Proton space launch vehicle at 7:18 a.m. (EDT) and the satellite successfully separated from the Proton rocket’s Breeze M upper stage eight hours and 58 minutes after liftoff.

Orbital designed, built and tested the SES-1 spacecraft at the company’s satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia. The state-of-the-art satellite will replace SES’ existing AMC-2 and AMC-4 spacecraft at the 101 degrees West orbital slo. The satellite carries 24 C-band transponders as well as 24 Ku-band transponders and has been designed to provide in-orbit services for 15 years. The SES-1 satellite is based on Orbital’s Star 2.4 platform and will generate approximately five kilowatts of payload power. Orbital is also building two other satellites for SES WORLD SKIES. Currently, the SES-2 and SES-3 spacecraft are in production and testing at the company’s Dulles, Virginia, facilities. Together, the three SES spacecraft will deliver full 50-state coverage of the U.S. in both C- and Ku-band frequencies from their strategically important orbital locations.