SES’s high-powered SES-14 satellite, positioned at 47.5 degrees West, is now serving Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, North Atlantic and West Africa.
The all-electric satellite, which has both C- and Ku-band wide-beam coverage and Ku-band high throughput spot beam coverage, is SES’s second hybrid satellite to serve the Americas, with the first being SES-15.
The satellite is expanding the reach of SES’s second cable neighbourhood in Latin America, and provides new capacity for DTH services.
It is also delivering more high-speed connectivity to the aeronautical market and other traffic-intensive applications in the maritime and cellular backhaul markets.
In addition, it carries a hosted payload for NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission. GOLD will provide imaging of the Earth’s upper atmosphere from geostationary orbit to deepen scientists’ understanding of the boundary between Earth and space.
SES-14 at 47.5 degrees West is replacing and augmenting services currently provided on NSS-806. The licence to operate at this Brazilian orbital location was the result of SES’s successful participation in a spectrum auction in 2014.
Commenting on SES-14, Martin Halliwell, CTO at SES, said, “Thanks to the Airbus, Arianespace and SES teams, SES-14 is able to fulfil its planned satellite mission of bringing better picture quality TV content to people across Latin America, as well as delivering high-speed broadband services to airline passengers flying over the Americas and North Atlantic routes. Enterprises and communities within the region will also be able to access the reliable connectivity provided by SES-14. SES-14 is key to SES’s future growth trajectory and is part of our on-going strategy to develop innovative capabilities for specific and growing markets.”
SES-14 was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. It was built by Airbus Defence and Space and is an all-electric satellite.
The satellite also features a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP), which increases payload flexibility and will provide customised connectivity solutions to SES’s customers.
