Posted: Wed, May 4, 2005, 8:14 AM ET (1214 GMT)
International Launch Services announced this week that it signed agreements for the Atlas launch of a US government payload and a commercial Proton launch. ILS said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with the Air Force to launch a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload, NROL-29. The launch, using an Atlas 5 521, will take place in 2007 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. On Wednesday ILS announced it had won a contract from Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB), a company majority-owned by SES Astra, to launch its Sirius 4 satellite on a Proton in the second quarter of 2007. Terms of the launch contract were not disclosed. NSAB awarded a satellite manufacturing contract for Sirius 4 to Lockheed Martin earlier this year.
