Liftoff is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. EDT, with the launch window extending until 7:34 p.m. (22:05 to 23:34 GMT). Launch will take place from Lockheed Martin's new facilities at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 41. The Atlas V will carry the HOT BIRD 6 broadcast satellite for Eutelsat.

The Atlas V, produced by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., is the latest generation in long line of reliable rockets. The Atlas family has a string of 60 successful launches over the last nine years.

"This mission continues the Atlas tradition of always carrying a customer on a first flight," said Mark Albrecht, president of ILS, which provides the launch services on the Atlas. "We are committed to mission success, as evidenced by Atlas' enviable record. All Atlas variants - Atlas I, II, IIA, IIAS, III - have had successful inaugural missions."

Albrecht added, "Once again Eutelsat demonstrated its confidence in ILS and the Atlas family by signing up to be the customer for the first launch of an Atlas variant. Our long and mutually successful relationship goes back to the beginning of the Atlas commercial space program, when Eutelsat was the first customer for the Atlas II, launched in December 1991. Eutelsat also was the first to use the Atlas III rocket, which flew successfully in May 2000."

HOT BIRD 6 is the most powerful satellite to be launched for Eutelsat. It is an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B3 satellite carrying 28 transponders at Ku-band and 4 at Ka-band, as well as a SKYPLEX payload for on-board multiplexing. It will be used to provide television and radio broadcast services.

The HOT BIRD satellites are positioned at 13 degrees East longitude and deliver 600 television channels and 475 radio services across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

This is the most powerful version of Atlas launch vehicles, and the sixth configuration introduced, illustrating Lockheed Martin's commitment to being the preeminent launch system provider in the United States. ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and two Russian companies, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia.

ILS markets and manages the missions for the Atlas and the Russian Proton vehicles.

The Atlas V family is designed to lift payloads up to nearly 8700 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It was developed both for ILS commercial missions and to meet the U.S. Air Force requirements for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV).

The Atlas V incorporates state-of-the-art designs, materials and processes, including the throttleable, Russian-built RD-180 engine, the first variable-thrust main engine to power a U.S. expendable launch vehicle. The RD-180 and most of the other technologies for Atlas V were flight-proven in 2000 on the inaugural Atlas III mission.

To support Atlas V missions, Lockheed Martin built a state-of-the-art launch complex at Cape Canaveral. The new site introduces the "clean pad" concept to U.S. launch capabilities for the first time, and consolidates the support operations into two facilities: the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) and the Vertical Integration Facility.

The clean pad concept allows the Atlas V vehicle to be assembled, tested and mated with the encapsulated spacecraft away from the pad, thus allowing more flexibility in meeting customer needs. The ASOC combines the Launch Operations Center, a high bay for vehicle processing, office space for mission support and customer hospitality rooms.

ILS offers the broadest range of launch services in the world along with products with the highest reliability in the industry. ILS' Atlas rockets and their Centaur upper stages are built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. -- Astronautics Operations at facilities in Denver, Colo.; Harlingen, Texas; and San Diego, Calif.

The three-stage Proton and the available Breeze M upper stage are produced by Khrunichev at its factory near Moscow. The alternative Block DM upper stage is built by Energia, also near Moscow.

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