Originally called Direct-TV3 and Direct-TV2 respectively, these Hughes HS-601 models were brought out of retirement and are currently used to share some of the workload from Nimiq-2 and Nimiq-1, respectively.
Nimiq-4 was launched on 19 September 2008, by a Proton-M / Briz M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
[4] It will replace Nimiq-4i, and will provide advanced services such as HDTV, specialty channels and foreign language programming.
The Nimiq-5 satellite was shipped from the manufacturer, Space Systems Loral located in Palo Alto, California, to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on 18 August 2009.
[7] Nimiq-5 was successfully launched into space aboard a Proton M / Breeze M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 19:19:19 UTC on 17 September 2009.