It is positioned in geostationary orbit, and located at a longitude of 61.5° West, from where it provides direct broadcasting of high-definition television services to the continental United States and Puerto Rico for Dish Network.

[2][3] EchoStar XV was built by Space Systems/Loral, and is based on the LS-1300 satellite bus.

[5] The launch of EchoStar XV was conducted by International Launch Services, using a Proton-M carrier rocket with a Briz-M upper stage.

The launch occurred from Site 200/39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, at 18:40 UTC on 10 July 2010.

[6] The launch successfully placed EchoStar XV into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.