The first Atlas 3 rocket lifts off from pad 36B at Cape Canaveral on Wednesday. Photo: Lockheed Martin/ILS

The rockets that will loft the next two EchoStar direct-to-home TV broadcasting satellites were picked Monday and the joint U.S.-Russian venture International Launch Services won both contracts.

The EchoStar 7 spacecraft will be launched aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 3B - probably the maiden flight of the new booster - from Cape Canaveral, Florida, between October and December of this year.

A Russian Proton K rocket is slated to carry the EchoStar 8 satellite in early 2002 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The deal also includes options for future launches through 2006. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The satellites are advanced, high-powered direct broadcast satellites (DBS) featuring spot-beam technology that will allow EchoStar's DISH Network to offer the latest TV technologies and increased channel choices to its more than 5 million customers.

EchoStar 7, expected to operate from geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the equator at 119 degrees West Longitude, is being designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif. EchoStar 8, which is expected to operate at the 110 degrees West Longitude, is being built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, Calif.

Both craft will be capable of operating 32 DBS transponders, switchable to 16 transponders operating in a high-powered mode. In addition to the transponders that provide national coverage, each satellite contains spot-beam transponders which have been designed to work together to increase and enhance the delivery of DISH Network's local channel services.

DISH Network currently offers local channels featuring community-based news, weather, sports and entertainment to more than 34 metro areas nationwide, reaching more than 60 percent of the U.S. households.

ILS manages all tasks associated with providing launch services on both vehicle families, including technical, management and marketing expertise.

The EchoStar 7 launch is currently slated to become the second flight of the Atlas 3 rocket, and the first voyage of the more powerful Atlas 3B using an enhanced Centaur upper stage.

But officials say there is always the chance another Atlas 3 mission could be sold and flown between now and the EchoStar launch.

An Atlas 3A successfully carried the Eutelsat W4 spacecraft to orbit last May.

"EchoStar's choice of the Atlas 3 for its next satellite demonstrates confidence in this vehicle and its heritage," said ILS President Mark Albrecht. "We're proud of the 100 percent success record of the Atlas 2 family, and look forward to making it 2 for 2 with Atlas 3.

"ILS has launched four other EchoStar satellites on Atlas and Proton. We believe that it's our reliable launchers and excellent service that brings us the return business."