SES orders new satellite for growing markets in Asia

The global satellite giant SES has selected Airbus Defence and Space to build a new hybrid communications satellite to service expanding markets in Asia.

The SES-12 is due to launch in late 2017 and will serve the fast growing direct-to-home (DTH), High Throughput Satellite (HTS) data, mobility and government markets in the Asia-Pacific, including rapidly growing markets such as India and Indonesia.

C+T reports the satellite will be positioned at the well-established SES orbital slot of 95 degrees East, providing incremental as well as replacement capacity with “excellent view angles across the Asia-Pacific region”. SES-12 will replace SES’s existing NSS-6 satellite and will be co-located with SES-8. SES is said to serve almost 20 million DTH households in India and Indochina from this orbital slot.

Airbus Defence and Space will build the SES-12 based on the Eurostar E3000 platform. It is designed to operate for 15 years, with a payload of 68 high-power physical Ku-band transponders and eight physical Ka-band transponders.

It is the 11th satellite SES has ordered from Airbus Defence and Space and Karim Michel Sabbagh, President and CEO of SES, said: “We look forward to working again with [them] on this important addition to our global fleet. SES-12 will greatly expand our capacity over Asia.

“Through its unique hybrid DTH/HTS design, SES-12 will continue to support our growing DTH platforms and provide a new, lower cost HTS product, further enhancing our customer’s options for growth.”