SES goes extra large with LatAm sat

SES World Skies has ordered a bumper new satellite from EADS Astrium to be named SES-6. The new bird will be located at 319.5E and will serve the burgeoning Latin American cable market, supporting video distribution including HD content to more than…

SES World Skies has ordered a bumper new satellite from EADS Astrium to be named SES-6. The new bird will be located at 319.5E and will serve the burgeoning Latin American cable market, supporting video distribution including HD content to more than 5,000 cable head-ends serving some 18 million homes.

SES-6 is replacing NSS-806 at 319.5E and at 6 tonnes is a substantially bigger bird than its predecessor. The satellite, which is based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, will have 43 C-Band and 48 Ku-Band 36 MHz equivalent transponders, making it nearly twice as large as NSS-806. Five of SES-6’s Ku-band beams are steerable, including four beams for the Americas and one beam covering the Atlantic Ocean region to support mobile maritime and aeronautical services. It is scheduled to be launched in 2013.

Launched in 1998, NSS-806 is be relocated to an undisclosed orbital slot and is expected to continue to operate until at least 2015.

Robert Bednarek, President and CEO of SES World Skies commented: “Latin America and the Caribbean have demonstrated significant growth over the past few years and we expect this to continue. Our customers have told us that more capacity is needed, and we are delighted to be able to provide not only an early replacement, but also a meaningful upgrade to our Americas coverage.”

At the end of 2009, SES ordered a batch of four new satellites from Astrium, ASTRA 2E, ASTRA 2F, ASTRA 2G and ASTRA 5B. The satellite operator secured an E523m export credit backed financing facility to help fund the purchase, although one banker told SatelliteFinance that this is not the case with this latest order.