SES has announced that the QuetzSat-1 satellite roared into space on board an ILS Proton Breeze M booster at 20:32 CET on September 29, 2011. After a 9-hour, 13-minute mission, the Breeze M upper stage of the Proton rocket successfully released the QuetzSat-1 satellite directly into geostationary transfer orbit.
QuetzSat-1 is an all Ku-band high-powered (20-kilowatt) communications broadcasting satellite with coverage of Mexico, USA, and Central America which is fully contracted to a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The spacecraft is based on Space Systems/Loral’s highly reliable 1300 satellite platform and carries 32 Ku-band transponders.
QuetzSat-1 provides the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances and provides high power for advanced DTH television. It is designed to deliver service for 15 years or longer.
Romain Bausch, president and CEO of SES declared: “The launch of QuetzSat-1 is the fourth successful SES satellite launch this year. We would like to thank Space Systems/Loral and ILS for a mission well executed according to specifications. And we look forward to providing EchoStar with a state-of-the-art new satellite to support the services they provide to their customers in the United States and Mexico.”
ILS president Frank McKenna said: “We are honored to partner with industry innovator SES in launching over one third of their operational fleet on ILS Proton over the past 15 years. QuetzSat-1 is a very important satellite to SES and their customer EchoStar and ILS has worked in partnership to make this launch a success. We thank the teams of SES, ILS, Khrunichev and Space Systems/Loral for ensuring mission success with the ILS Proton launch of QuetzSat-1 and we look forward to our upcoming launches with SES.”
The next SES launch is scheduled for the second half of November, when an ILS Proton booster will orbit the SES-4 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
