Will be used for HDTV broadcasts in the US
An Atlas 2 rocket carrying a television broadcast satellite was successfully launched on Thursday, 5/2 from Cape Canaveral.
The missile took off after the launch at Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Center Air Force Base. The launch was slightly delayed due to a valve that broke during refueling.
ILS - a partnership between Lockheed Martin that built the Atlas rocket and the Khronichev space center in Russia, plans to launch 15 satellites in 2004, nine of them using Atlas rockets and the other six using Russian Proton rockets. This is what the company based in McLean, Virginia said.
"We are at the beginning of an extremely busy year," said company president Mark Albrecht.
The Atlas rocket carried a satellite owned by SES Americom, and the company's president, Dean Olmstead, said that the total cost of launching the satellite, including the Atlas rocket and insurance, amounts to 250 million dollars.
The satellite is part of a new generation of communication satellites from SES Americom, and they will transmit high-definition (widescreen) television channels. "We are expanding the content offering with high broadcast quality, and more announcements are expected," said Olmstead. "The time of HDTV quality broadcasts has come.
