TONBRIDGE, England -- SpaceX announced Monday it will launch a Thai television broadcasting satellite from Cape Canaveral in 2013, the second confirmed contract the company has secured this year for an international communications payload.

File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket launch. Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX
 
A Falcon 9 rocket will haul the Thaicom 6 communications satellite into orbit in the second quarter of 2013. In a separate announcement Monday, officials said the spacecraft will be built by Orbital Sciences Corp.

Thaicom Public Company Ltd. announced the new $160 million satellite project May 31. Thaicom 6 will expand the company's business in satellite television broadcasting over Southeast Asia and South Asia.

With a mix of C-band and Ku-band transponders, Thaicom 6 will operate in geosynchronous orbit along the equator at 78.5 degreees east longitude for up to 15 years.

The Thaicom 6 contract is the second communications satellite launch agreement SpaceX has bagged this year. In March, the start-up space company announced a contract with SES, a leading European-based communications satellite operator.

"The Falcon 9 will serve our unique needs at Thaicom," said Arak Chonlatanon, CEO of Thaicom. "This dedicated launch vehicle is both cost-effective and best-matched to our requirements. We look forward to working closely with the SpaceX team to ensure that the Thaicom 6 satellite will be successfully launched."

Another Falcon 9 rocket will boost the SES 8 direct broadcasting satellite to orbit in early 2013. SES 8 and Thaicom 6 will be the first commercial satellites launched to geosynchronous transfer orbit from U.S. soil since 2009.

Most communications satellites are stationed 22,300 miles above the equator in geosynchronous orbit, a position in which the craft appear to hover over a fixed position on Earth. This type of orbit allows dish receivers on the ground to remain pointed at the same place in the sky.

Arianespace of France and U.S.-based International Launch Services, which sells Russian Proton rockets, control the bulk of the market for communications satellite launch services. Chinese Long March boosters and Sea Launch, which flies Zenit rockets from an ocean-based vessel, also participate in the commercial launch business.

But U.S. Atlas and Delta rockets no longer regularly launch commercial communications satellites. Both launcher families commonly dispatched international payloads in the 1990s, but neither rocket has a commercial communications satellite in their backlog today.

SpaceX hopes to bring more commercial satellite launches to the United States, mixing communications payloads into a manifest that also includes cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.

"This deal highlights the confidence that satellite operators have in SpaceX capabilities, and is the latest example of the effect SpaceX is having on the international commercial launch market," said Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO. "Asia is a critical market and SpaceX is honored to support its growing launch needs with a reliable U.S.-based solution."

SpaceX also has launch agreements with Spacecom, an Israeli satellite operator, and Space Systems/Loral, a California-based spacecraft manufacturer. A second launch option in 2015 was also part of the deal between SpaceX and SES announced in March.

None of those contracts have assigned specific payloads to a Falcon 9 launch.