Intelsat III F-1

[2] It had a design life of five years and carried an SVM-2 apogee motor for propulsion.

The launch took place at 00:09:00 UTC on September 19, 1968, with the spacecraft bound for a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

[1] It was to go in operation above the Atlantic Ocean in time to relay broadcasts of the next month's Olympics in Mexico City.

[4][5][6] Twenty seconds after liftoff a fault became apparent in the gyroscope used to monitor the rate at which the rocket pitched over.

Control of the rocket was subsequently lost, with it beginning to disintegrate around 102 seconds into the flight.