EL SEGUNDO, California, September 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Falcon 9 Flights Sold Now Total Seven

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announced today that it has
signed a contract with the UK-based Avanti Communications Group (Avanti) for
the launch of Avanti's HYLAS Ka band satellite to geostationary transfer
orbit (GTO) on board a SpaceX Falcon 9. Of the seven Falcon 9 launches on the
SpaceX manifest, this will be their first commercial geostationary
telecommunications customer.

The contract also includes options for up to three additional satellite
launches. If Avanti were to exercise those options, the value of the
transaction would be approximately US$150 Million at standard list prices.

"Avanti thoroughly and objectively reviewed all the launch vehicles in 
the world and picked Falcon 9, which is a major endorsement of SpaceX," said 
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. "Falcon 9 is designed to the higher standards and 
safety margins required to carry astronauts for NASA, making it well suited 
for high value satellite missions."

Scheduled to lift off from the SpaceX launch complex at Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station in Florida between March 31, 2009 and December 31, 2009,
the HYLAS satellite will provide broadband and data communications services
to European customers in 22 countries. It will occupy a geostationary orbit a
33.5 degrees west longitude, with an expected lifetime of 15 years.

"SpaceX shares our vision of changing the speed and economics of space
services so we look forward to working together," said David Williams,
Avanti's chief executive. "Given their progress and plans with customers such
as NASA and the US Department of Defense, we are very confident in their
capabilities to deliver our satellite to orbit on time and on budget."

About SpaceX

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to reduce the
cost and increase the reliability of both manned and unmanned space
transportation ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch
vehicles, SpaceX is able to offer light, medium and heavy lift capabilities
to deliver spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit
to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions.

As winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
competition, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle
and Dragon spacecraft for NASA. This will culminate in Dragon berthing with
the International Space Station and returning safely to Earth. When the
Shuttle retires in 2010, Falcon 9/Dragon will have the opportunity to replace
the Shuttle in servicing the Space Station.

About Avanti Communications Group

Avanti Communications Group plc (AIM: AVN) is the only licensed fixed and
broadcast satellite operator headquartered in the UK (and one of only nine
such groups operating in Europe). In August 2005 Ofcom awarded Avanti the
right to provide satellite services using the geostationary orbital position
at 33.5 degrees west with 3.6Ghz of radio spectrum which provides coverage of
Western Europe and most of Central and Eastern Europe. The Company's first
satellite, HYLAS, is financed and under construction for delivery in December
2008. HYLAS uses unique technologies to provide highly flexible and cost
effective satellite capacity. Avanti Communications currently provides
satellite telecommunications services to customers in Europe (using leased
satellite capacity) which will transfer to HYLAS on launch. Avanti sells
wholesale HYLAS capacity to telecoms and media service providers in Europe.
The core applications for which Avanti expects HYLAS capacity to be used are
broadband, corporate networks and video distribution.

Web site: http://www.spacex.com
              http://www.avanti-communications.com