Intelsat has brought to an end its extraordinary year of satellite and launch orders. On 17 September, it placed a construction order for its seventh (and likely final) C-band replacement satellite GALAXY 13R – previously known as GALAXY 37. SSL, part of Maxar, was the recipient of the contract. This marks the fifth C-band replacement sat that SSL is building for Intelsat.
Concurrently, Intelsat has announced that it has secured launches for all seven of its C-band replacement sats. Like industry compatriot SES, Intelsat has decided to use American launch provider SpaceX to orbit four of its satellites. However, unlike SES it has decided to employ European launch provider Arianespace for the remaining three. The format of the launches has previously been outlined to the FCC by Intelsat, and reported on by Seradata here.
Intelsat has said that it expects to spend US$390m in total launching these satellites. It has estimated specific costs to launch each satellite at US$40m.
Corporate logo of Intelsat. Courtesy of Intelsat
