XM Radio Successfully Launches Second Satellite – As ‘Roll’ Heads for Orbit, ‘Rock’ Prepares to Broadcast

XM Satellite Radio’s
second satellite, “Roll,” launched flawlessly this evening and was on its
planned path toward orbit, completing the company’s satellite launch program.

Liftoff occurred at 6:10 p.m. EDT off the Sea Launch Company’s Odyssey
Launch Platform in open waters of the Pacific Ocean on the equator.
The first
signals from the satellite were captured by a ground station in Perth,
Australia, at 7:20 p.m. EDT as planned.

“With today’s successful satellite launch, we have nearly cleared the
final hurdle to debut XM’s revolutionary radio service late this summer,” said
XM President and CEO Hugh Panero.
“We now have two birds in the sky —
completing our constellation, XM-ready radios on retail shelves, our chipsets
in production and our broadcast studios creating content.”

Roll launched from 154 degrees West Longitude.
Its final position will be
at 85 degrees West Longitude.
A 200-foot Zenit-3SL rocket lifted the 10,289
lb. (4,672 kg) digital audio radio satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit

“Rock” is Rockin’

As Roll heads for orbit, XM’s first satellite, “Rock,” has settled into
geostationary orbit at 115 degrees West Longitude, completed its deployments
— radiator panels, antennas and solar rays — and begun to transmit and
receive test signals.
Rock is scheduled to begin broadcasting in mid-May —
preparing for commercial service late this summer.

Rock and Roll will both operate in geostationary orbit above the United
States.
By using two powerful satellites, each with the same nationwide
coverage, XM will ensure maximum signal and system reliability.

All three XM satellites — “Rock,” “Roll,” and a spare which is built and
in its final testing phase — are Boeing 702 models, manufactured by industry
leader Boeing Satellite Systems, a business of the Boeing Company.
The XM
spacecraft carry a unique digital audio radio payload built by Alcatel Space
Industries.
The payload features two active transponders, each with 16 active
(and six spare) 228-watt traveling wave tube amplifiers generating
approximately 3,000 watts of RF signal power, making it the most powerful
satellite ever built.
The Sea Launch Company, an international partnership,
is the world’s only ocean-based commercial launch service provider, offering
the most direct and cost-effective route to transfer orbit.

XM will transform radio, an industry that has seen little technological
change since FM, almost 40 years ago.
XM will create and package up to 100
channels of digital-quality sound and provide coast-to-coast coverage of
music, news, sports, talk, comedy and children’s programming.
XM won several
awards at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, including
“Best of CES” in the automotive category.

XM’s strategic investors include America’s leading car, radio and
satellite TV companies — General Motors, American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Clear
Channel Communications, DIRECTV and Motient Corporation , the
company’s largest shareholder.
XM has a long-term distribution agreement with
General Motors to integrate XM radios into its vehicles commencing in 2001.
XM-ready radios are being manufactured by such household names as Sony,
Alpine, Pioneer, Clarion, Blaupunkt, Delphi-Delco, Visteon, Panasonic, and
Sanyo.
For more information, please visit our web site: www.xmradio.com.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in
the forward-looking statements in this press release include uncertainties
associated with the launch of the company’s satellites, the company’s
dependence on third party vendors, its continuing need for additional
financing, as well as other risks described in XM Satellite Radio Holdings
Inc.’s Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 22,
2001.
Copies of the filing are available upon request from XM Radio’s
Investor Relations Department.