SES-5 er nu opsendt

SES, det tidligere SES Astra, har fået opsendt en ny satellit til placering på 5 grader øst positionen, som jo bekendt er satellitpositionen for Viasat. SES 5 blev opsendt med en ILS Proton Breeze M raket  fra Baikonur Cosmodrome i Kazakhstan kl 20:38 dansk tid mandag aften.

SES 5 er bygget af Space Systems/Loral og er udrustet med 36 ku transpondere samt op til 24 C bånd transpondere. Der er 2 ku beams på satellitten, et der dækker de nordiske lande og et målrettet det afrikanske marked.

Romain Bausch, president and CEO of SES, udtaler: “SES-5 marks the second successful ILS-Proton launch in 2012 for SES and the third SES satellite delivered by Space Systems/Loral in the last ten months. SES-5 furthermore hosts the EGNOS payload for the European Commission. The powerful new satellite enters the global SES fleet as Number 51. We would like to thank the launch teams of Space Systems/Loral, ILS, Khrunichev and SES for their dedicated work that ultimately ensured total mission success. We would also like to thank the European Commission for entrusting SES with the EGNOS hosted payload. After thorough in-orbit testing, SES and its customers can now look forward to SES-5 providing new, state-of-the-art satellite capacity across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

Frank McKenna, President for  ILS, udtaler: “ILS and SES have a partnership that spans 16 years, starting with the very first ILS Proton launch with SES’ Astra 1F satellite. Since that time, ILS Proton has launched 21 of SES’ satellites, which provide telecommunications services for their diverse customer base across the globe. We are honored to launch the powerful SES-5 satellite for SES, including the EC hosted payload to enable the upcoming deployment L-band to serve the EGNOS system in Europe. We look forward to performing all of our future ILS Proton launches with SES and contributing, with outstanding value and schedule assurance, to their expansive fleet.”