Arianespace has been contracted by Intelsat to provide launch vehicles for two satellites that are expected to be lifted off into space by 2020.

The Galaxy 30 satellite will initially be launched, along with the Orbital ATK’s Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV- 2) spacecraft as a stacked pair.

Set to be launched aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle, the Galaxy 30 will be deigned to act as a replacement satellite for the North American Galaxy Fleet.

“Since 2016, Arianespace has successfully completed five missions on behalf of Intelsat, including four that included our next-generation Intelsat EpicNG spacecrafts.”

Built by Orbital ATK, the satellite will feature C-band, Ku- and Ka-band payloads to support broadband applications in North America.

The Galaxy 3 is scheduled to be launched from Europe’s Spaceport in South America by early 2020.

As part of the latest contract, Arianespace will also provide an Ariane 5 rocket to launch an additional satellite for Intelsat in the second half of 2020.

Intelsat Space Systems senior vice-president Ken Lee said: “Since 2016, Arianespace has successfully completed five missions on behalf of Intelsat, including four that included our next-generation Intelsat EpicNG spacecrafts.”

In a separate development, Arianespace and its parent company ArianeGroup have secured an order to provide ten new Ariane 5 ECA launchers to various customers.

Valued at more than €1bn in total, the order includes more than 600 companies across Europe.

It also brings the number of Ariane 5 launchers in production or to be produced to 23 units belonging to the company’s PBand PC batches of solutions.