SES-6

SES-6 is a commercial geostationary communication satellite owned and operated by SES

Launch

Constructed by EADS Astrium, it was launched on 3 June 2013 at 09:18:31 UTC from Baikonour by Proton-M / Briz-M launch vehicle and carries 43 C-band and 48 Ku-band transponders.[2] With 43 C-band and 48 Ku-band 36 MHz equivalent transponders (38 C-band and 36 Ku-band physical transponders), the 6010 kg satellite has a design life of 15 years. It is built on the Eurostar-3000 satellite bus.[3]

Market

The SES-6 satellite replaces the aging NSS-806 (launched on 28 February 1998 as Intelsat 806). It is nearly twice as large as NSS-806, with two C-band beams and has a total of five steerable Ku-band beams, including four beams for the Americas and one beam covering the Atlantic Ocean region.[3] The C-band beams cover the East Atlantic (Europe, North Africa) and West Atlantic (United States, Mexico, South America). The Ku-band beams cover East Atlantic (Europe, Iceland, Greenland), West Atlantic (Eastern United States, Eastern Canada) and Brazil.[4]

SES-6 offers the cable community 50% more C-band capacity than NSS-806, while maintaining the ability to deliver content across the Americas and Europe using the same high-powered beam. In addition, SES-6 offers a significant upgrade to Ku-band capacity in the region with dedicated high power beams over Brazil, South cone, the Andean region, North America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, while also offering an newly developed payload to support mobile maritime and aeronautical services on the highly demanded routes from North America, the Gulf of Mexico, across the North Atlantic and to Europe.[3]

Following the launch, SES announced a long-term capacity agreement to provide a new direct-to-home (DTH) platform in Brazil with Brazilian telecommunication group Oi, which would become the largest user of the new satellite.[2]

See also

• SES (satellite operator)

External links

• SES - Official trade/industry site