Editing Intelsat (section)

=== Launch vehicles ===
Over time, Intelsat has worked with most of the commercial launch services providers worldwide. Their satellites are often among the most massive of their generation, requiring the most powerful and reliable rockets on the market at a given time. In the 21st century, most Intelsat missions were conducted by [[Arianespace]] with the European [[Ariane 4]] and [[Ariane 5]] launchers, and by [[International Launch Services]] (ILS) with [[Proton-K]] and [[Proton-M]] rockets manufactured by [[Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center|Khrunichev]] in [[Russia]]. Intelsat also took advantage of the equatorial [[Sea Launch]] offering with [[Zenit-3SL]] rockets launched from the [[Odyssey (launch platform)|Ocean Odyssey]] floating platform in [[Pacific Ocean]], until they suspended operations in 2014. On 30 May 2012, Intelsat signed a contract with [[SpaceX]] for one of the first [[Falcon Heavy]] [[launch vehicle]]s,<ref name="Intelsat signs Falcon Heavy contract">{{cite web|url=http://www.satellitetoday.com/st/headlines/38899.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201174116/http://www.satellitetoday.com/st/headlines/38899.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 February 2013|title=SpaceX Signs Falcon Heavy Launch Deal with Intelsat|author=Jeffrey Hill|publisher=Satellite Today|access-date=3 June 2012}}</ref> marking the return of Intelsat to American launchers after many flights on [[Atlas II]] in the 1990s and a single [[Atlas V]] launch in 2009.{{fact|date=November 2024}}