LUXEMBOURG & KOUROU, French Guiana--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SES S.A. (Paris:SESG)(LuxX:SESG) announces that its new ASTRA 1N satellite has been successfully launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on August 6th at 19:52 pm local time (0:52 am Central European Summer Time on August 7th).
ASTRA 1N is set to deliver direct-to-home (DTH) services, notably digital and high definition (HD) television in Europe. The satellite will first provide interim replacement capacity at 28.2° East, and will subsequently be moved to 19.2° East, from where it will mainly serve the German, French and Spanish markets.
ASTRA 1N was built by Astrium on the Eurostar E3000 platform and is equipped with 52 transponders in the Ku frequency band. The satellite had a launch mass of 5,325 kg and is the fourth Eurostar satellite in the SES fleet. ASTRA 1N will be brought into commercial service within the next weeks after extensive in-orbit testing.
“The successful launch of ASTRA 1N is another important milestone in our ambitious launch manifest for 2011, which will see four additional SES launches before year-end,” said Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES. “ASTRA 1N will greatly enhance the flexibility of SES’ ASTRA satellite fleet at two key SES orbital slots over Europe and we would like to thank our longstanding partners Astrium and Arianespace for this mission success.”
Pictures of the launch will be made available on www.arianespace.com and via AFP, Reuters, EPA, AP, Kyodo News, in Europe via AFP, ANP, ANSA, APA, Belga, DPA, EFE, Keystone, Lusa, Pressebild, and in Japan via JIJI press.
Note to Editors:
The next SES launch is scheduled for early September, when an Ariane ECA booster will orbit the SES-2 spacecraft from the European Space Port in Kourou.
About SES
SES (Paris:SESG)(LuxX:SESG) wholly owns the market-leading satellite operators SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES, and participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. SES provides outstanding satellite communications solutions via a global fleet of 45 satellites. For further information: www.ses.com