Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, and Adrian Ballintine, founder and Chief Executive Officer of NewSat Limited (NewSat), have signed the launch services contract for the Jabiru-1 satellite at Satellite 2012 in Washington, DC.

Jabiru-1 will be boosted into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, during the fourth quarter of 2014.

Jabiru-1 is currently being built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems using an A2100 platform. Weighing 5,900 kg at launch, it will be fitted with 50 Ka-band transponders configured in a variety of multi-spot, steerable and regional beams.

Jabiru-1's high-powered capacity will provide flexible communication solutions to enterprise and government customers across Asia, the Middle East and eastern Africa. It offers a design life of 15 years.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, said: "We are delighted to have been chosen by NewSat to launch their first satellite. Arianespace is particularly proud of this opportunity to serve a new Australian operator. For us, this latest contract provides further recognition of the outstanding quality and competitiveness of our launch services."

"Jabiru-1 is very important for us and we are very pleased to entrust Arianespace with its launch, since Arianespace sets the world standard in this market," said Adrian Ballintine.

"It is extremely important for us at NewSat to know that our first satellite will be launched by Arianespace and by Ariane 5, both synonymous with reliability and excellence."