Boeing [NYSE: BA] has shipped DIRECTV 12 from the Company's satellite manufacturing facility in El Segundo, California, to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch facility in Kazakhstan. Upon arrival, the satellite will undergo final preparations for a December launch aboard an International Launch Services Proton/Breeze M rocket.

DIRECTV 12 is the 11th satellite Boeing has built for the nation's No. 1 satellite TV service, enabling DIRECTV to continue to broaden its lineup of digital television programming services and expand its customer base. The new satellite will increase DIRECTV's HD capacity by 50 percent — when combined with the DIRECTV 10 and 11 satellites that launched in 2007 and 2008, will enable DIRECTV to deliver 200 national and 1,500 local HDTV channels to millions of U.S. households. DIRECTV 12's national and spot-beam Ka-band payloads are designed to receive and transmit programming throughout the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii.