AMC-2 was ordered by GE Americom as GE-2 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-2 became AMC-2.

AMC-2 was launched in a dual launch with Nahuel 1A on January 30^th, 1997 on an Ariane 44LP booster rocket operated by launch operator Arianespace from the Kourou Space Port in French Guiana.