* Astronomy

Sea Launch has signed a launch contract with Intelsat to orbit the Intelsat Americas-9 satellite in the fourth quarter of 2007.

IA-9 is currently under construction at Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California, US.
The mission will be Sea Launch's second with Intelsat. The company launched the IA-8 satellite in June of last year.
The IA-9 satellite is a high-power, C-band and Ku-band satellite that will provide communications service to North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Intelsat plans to operate the satellite from an orbital location at 97 degrees west longitude. IA-9 will become Intelsat's west satellite covering North America.