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TS News - GE-1 Launched By Atlas

TELE-satellit News, 9 September 1996

GE-1 Launched By Atlas
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, USA, 96/09/08 (TS) -- A Lockheed Martin
Astronautics Atlas IIA rocket successfully launched the GE-1 commercial
communications satellite into supersynchronous transfer orbit Sunday from
Complex 36, Pad B, at Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was the fifth successful
Atlas launch of 1996 from Cape Canaveral Air Station and the 25th
consecutive successful flight for Atlas.

  GE-1, built by Lockheed Martin Astro Space Commercial, is the first
commercial communications satellite to use the advanced A2100 bus design.
Once in final orbit at 103 degrees west, GE-1 will join the rest of GE's
commercial domestic satellite fleet in providing cable television, broadcast
television and radio, private business and government communications
services to the 50 U.S. states and the Caribbean region.

  The Atlas IIA, designated AC-123 for the GE-1 mission, is one of four
variants in the Atlas family presently launching satellites for domestic and
international customers. Atlas IIA is capable of placing satellites of the
6,200 to 6,500-lb. weight class into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The
Atlas II series, including the II, IIA and IIAS, has had 100 percent
operational success since the introduction of each launch vehicle.

  Lockheed Martin has commitments for 27 Atlas launches through the 1990s,
including 23 commercial and 4 Air Force missions. Two more missions remain
in the 1996 manifest, and eight missions are forecast for next year.


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