Ground Station Acquires GE-1A Signal Following Successful Launch: All Systems Nominal

The GE-1A
telecommunications satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin
Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) for Americom Asia-Pacific (AAP), a
joint venture between GE American Communications and Lockheed Martin
Global Telecommunications, was successfully launched yesterday at
3 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,
Kazakhstan. The spacecraft was lofted into orbit on a Proton booster
provided by International Launch Services.

Initial contact with the satellite, called acquisition of signal,
was achieved yesterday at 9:56 p.m. PDT from the Lockheed Martin
satellite tracking station in Uralla, Australia. GE-1A is a
high-powered, all Ku-band satellite composed of 28 active
transponders. It will operate at 108 degrees east longitude and
features three beams covering China; Northeast Asia and the
Philippines and South Asia including India.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems markets, designs and
builds geostationary and non-geostationary telecommunications and
remote sensing satellites for customers worldwide. LMCSS is an
operating unit of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, one of the
core business areas of the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Lockheed Martin has a 41-year heritage of building reliable spacecraft
for commercial and military customers, having launched more than 875
spacecraft and clocking nearly 1,100 years of on-orbit performance
experience.

For the complete news release and to download a video clip of the
launch, please visit http://www.ilslaunch.com.

For images of the GE-1A satellite, please visit the URL site at:
http://lmms.external.lmco.com/photos/commercial_space/ge1.3/ge1.3.html

For more information about Lockheed Martin Commercial Space
Systems, see our web site at http://www.lmcommercialspace.com.