ABS-3A

First flight of Boeing's dual-stacked 702SP configuration, with ABS-3A and Eutelsat 115 West B launching as a conjoined pair — a stack Boeing designed specifically to fit a Falcon 9 and have each customer share launch costs. Both satellites were the first commercial communications satellites to forgo chemical propulsion entirely, relying solely on electric thrusters for orbit-raising from GTO; the trade-off was a months-long transit to final orbit rather than weeks.