SpaceX Announces Two New Contracts to Launch Communications Satellites

SpaceX, American aerospace manufacturer, made an announcement on Monday in Paris that it has recently got two new contract in which it will be launching satellites for Saudi Arabia and for HISPASAT.

The Elon Musk-owned company revealed that both the launches will take place at Florida’s Cape Canaveral rather than Brownsville.

These contracts were awarded during the recent World Satellite Business Conference in Paris, France. Now the California-based SpaceX on its manifest has more than 60 missions, representing over $7 billion under contract.

Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said in a statement that they are pleased to add the additional contract mission to their manifest.

“The diversity of our missions and customers represents a strong endorsement of our capabilities and reflects SpaceX’s efforts to provide a breadth of launch services to our growing customer base”, he said.

The company said in a statement that it will be using its Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Saudi Arabian Arabsat 6A communications satellite, whereas it will use its Falcon 9 rocket to launch a communications satellite for HISPASAT.

Neither SpaceX nor its clients revealed the exact amount of the contracts, but as per SpaceX website a launch involving the Falcon 9 costs $61.2 million, while the Falcon Heavy fetches $90 million.

Arabsat or Arab Satellite Communications Organization administers the use of communications satellites in the Arab world whereas HISPASAT is the operating company for a number of Spanish communications satellites that cover the Americas, Europe and North Africa.

SpaceX that designs manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft has become the first commercial entity to haul supplies to the International Space Station.