AMC-3 was ordered by GE Americom as GE-3 and built by Lockheed Martin based on their A2100A satellite bus. In 2001 GE Americom was acquired by SES from Luxembourg, making SES the world’s biggest satellite service provider. After the acquisition GE Americom was renamed SES Americom and later SES World Skies, and resulted also in renaming the satellite assets, GE-3 became AMC-3.

In January 2017 satellite connectivity and content provider Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE), purchased all the capacity to support aeronautical customers, in particular Southwest Airlines, the company’s largest customer. SES continues to operate the non-station-kept satellite to support Global Eagle in its use. Global Eagle rebranded the satellite as Eagle-1 and covers North America, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

AMC-3 was launched on September 4^th, 1997 on an Atlas IIAS booster rocket operated by Lockheed Martin.