The AMC-15 telecommunications satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin for SES Americom of Princeton, NJ, is ready for launch Oct. 15, 2004 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton/Breeze M launch vehicle provided by International Launch Services, a Lockheed Martin joint venture.
AMC-15 is the 25th A2100 delivered to satellite operators around the world and the 10th A2100 delivered to SES Americom. AMC-15 features one of America's first payloads operating at the Ka-band frequency carrying 12 125-MHz Ka-band spot beams along with 24 36-MHz transponders of Ku-band capacity. Americom has an agreement with EchoStar Communications, a U.S. direct broadcast system operator, to use both payloads on AMC-15.
AMC-15 is one of four Lockheed Martin-built satellites ILS is launching in 2004 to expand SES Americom's world-wide fleet of satellites, which provide global distribution of cable, broadcast television and radio programming, mobile communications, business television, broadband data and telecommunications services.
AMC-10 and AMC-11 were successfully launched on Atlas IIAS vehicles in February and May 2004, and AMC-16 is scheduled to be launched on an Atlas V in December 2004. Based on the award-winning A2100 satellite series manufactured by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, Newtown, Pa., AMC-15 has a design life of 15 years.
The Lockheed Martin A2100 geosynchronous spacecraft series is designed to meet a wide variety of commercial and government telecommunications needs ranging from Ka-band/broadband services and fixed satellite services in C-band and Ku-band payload configurations, to high-power direct broadcast services using the Ku-band frequency spectrum and S-band mobile satellite services.
