SAN DIEGO, May 30, 1996 – International Launch Services (ILS) formally signed a contract today to provide launch services to EchoStar Communications Corp. on each of its two launch vehicles, the Lockheed Martin Atlas and the Russian-built Proton. An Atlas IIAS will launch EchoStar’s third high-power direct broadcast satellite in the time period September 1997 through November 1997, and a Proton will launch EchoStar IV in the first quarter of 1998.