SES Orders New SES-14 Satellite for Growth in the Americas and North Atlantic

The new satellite will be built by Airbus Space and Defence, is scheduled for launch in Q4 2017 and will operate at 47.5/48 degrees West, where it will replace SES’s satellite NSS-806 and add new capacity.

SES-14 is a hybrid satellite with C- and Ku-band wide beam coverage, as well as Ku- and Ka-band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) coverage across the Americas and the North Atlantic region. The satellite will fully rely on electric propulsion and will be equipped with an electric plasma propulsion system for orbit raising and in-orbit manoeuvres. The electric propulsion system delivers significant reduction in the weight of the satellite, enabling larger payloads to be carried. The new spacecraft will also feature a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP), increasing the payload flexibility to provide customized bandwidth solutions to SES's customers.

SES-14’s Ku-band wide beams will bring augmented capacity to serve growing Direct-to-Home and Direct-to-Cable video neighborhoods in the Americas and support existing VSAT services in both bands. The multi-spot Ku- and Ka-band beams will bring additional, high throughput capacity and are ideal for traffic-intensive data applications such as mobile backhaul, maritime and aeronautical services.

This procurement is incorporated in SES’s current capital expenditure guidance.

Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer, SES, commented: “The procurement of SES-14, the first high power satellite in the four-tonne class, extends our offering to customers in the Americas and further solidifies SES’s positioning in these dynamic markets. The new spacecraft combines a large footprint with a powerful hybrid payload and significant spacecraft technology innovations. It will help us to capture important growth potential, address the needs of video and enterprise customers and support the development of Next Generation Video and Next Generation Data services. Furthermore, it complements O3b’s high throughput satellite capacity in the medium earth orbit and helps us to deliver a truly unique and integrated offering."

“SES once again demonstrates its responsiveness in a changing market, and we are pleased to be able to provide them with our very best technological innovation for both the payload and the platform,” said François Auque, Head of Space Systems at Airbus. “On SES-14, as on SES-12, the mass saving from electric propulsion enables us to combine two high-capacity missions, equivalent to two conventional satellites in one satellite.”