SES has selected Airbus Defence and Space to build a new hybrid communications satellite, SES-12, to serve the DTH, data, mobility and government markets in Asia.
The new satellite will expand SES’s capabilities to provide DTH broadcasting, VSAT, mobility and High Throughput Satellite (HTS) data connectivity services in the Asia-Pacific region, including rapidly growing markets such as India and Indonesia.
The spacecraft will be positioned at the SES orbital slot of 95 degrees East, providing incremental as well as replacement capacity with 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. Today, SES serves close to 20 million DTH households in India and Indochina from this orbital slot.
SES-12 will be built by Airbus Defence and Space based on the Eurostar E3000 platform. The satellite is designed to operate for 15 years, with a payload consisted of 68 high-power physical Ku-band transponders and 8 physical Ka-band transponders. The spacecraft will be equipped with an electric plasma propulsion system for orbit raising and on-orbit manoeuvres.
The payload of the hybrid SES-12 satellite consists of two distinct but complementary missions: first, traditional wide beam coverage, and second, a high-powered Ku-band multi spot beam payload (HTS).
The traditional wide-beam mission consists of 54 (36 MHz equivalent) transponders that will provide state-of-the-art replacement and growth capacity for SES’s existing DTH, government and VSAT customers allowing for a seamless transition from NSS-6 to SES-12. In addition, the design provides incremental growth capacity to support new DTH platforms and other services targeting the Asia-Pacific region.
The second mission consists of 70 Ku-band spot beams and 11 Ka-band spot beams delivering over 14 GHz for VSAT, Enterprise, Mobility and Government applications. This mission also includes a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) which provides anti-jamming capabilities as well as increased payload flexibility in order to provide customized bandwidth solutions to SES customers.
SES-12 is the 11th spacecraft that SES has ordered from Airbus Defence and Space. Financial details are not being disclosed. A launch vehicle for SES-12 will be announced at a later stage.
“We look forward to working again with Airbus Defence and Space on this important addition to our global fleet,” said Karim Michel Sabbagh, president and CEO of SES.”
SES-12 will greatly expand our capacity over Asia and is fully in line with our capital expenditure plan. 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.”
