Adrian Ballantine, left, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, right, at the signing of the new launch contract.

...Arianespace for the launch of Jabiru-1. The agreement with Arianespace updates the previous launch reservation agreement announced on December 8, 2011, with final launch service specifications and details. The official signing of the launch service contract for Jabiru-1 between Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, and Adrian Ballintine, Founder and CEO of NewSat, took place at Satellite 2012 in Washington, DC.

Jabiru-1 will be launched into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, during the fourth quarter of 2014. The financial terms of the agreement are confidential and cannot be released at this date. Jabiru-1 is currently being constructed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems using an A2100 platform. Weighing 5,900kg at launch, it will be fitted with 50 Ka-band transponders configured for a variety of multi-spot, steerable and regional beams. Jabiru-1’s high-powered capacity will provide flexible communication solutions to enterprise and government customers across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.