[October 03, 2009] SES World Skies' NSS-12 Satellite Safely Arrives at Kourou Launch Base Tweet Oct 03, 2009 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- SES World Skies, a SES company, announced that its NSS-12 satellite has safely arrived at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, onboard an Antonov cargo plane. The NSS-12 spacecraft, manufactured by Space Systems/Loral (SSL), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, will now be readied for launch onboard an Ariane 5 booster, scheduled for lift off on October 29. The NSS-12 satellite will provide coverage of some of the world's fastest-growing markets. The spacecraft will replace NSS-703 at 57 degrees East and cover virtually the entire Eastern Hemisphere, bringing increased capacity and transmission power to a key orbital location at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. The spacecraft features 40 C-band transponders and 48 Ku-band transponders with DTH power levels, as well as elaborate beam interconnectivity and C-/Ku-band cross-strapping. NSS-12 is based on SS/L's space-proven 1300 platform and has been designed to have a minimum expected lifetime of 15 years. NSS-12 will deliver DTH power and performance through four regional Ku-band spot beams over the Middle East and Europe, Central and South Asia and, for the first time, East Africa. The satellite's high-capacity, high-power C-band hemispheric beams - one covering Europe, Africa (including Mauritius) and the Middle East, and the other stretching across Asia to Australia - have been augmented by a C-band global beam spanning from the UK to the Far East. The satellite will reach an estimated two-thirds of the world's population. States Rob Bednarek, President and CEO of SES World Skies: "NSS-12 will be the largest and most powerful satellite in the SES World Skies fleet and an important spacecraft in our strategy going forward. The new satellite will allow us to provide seamless continuity and significant incremental capacity at a key orbital location, allowing existing and future customers to introduce new services, expand into new markets and replicate the success of the various video, government and enterprise applications currently transmitted via 57 degrees East." "SES currently has three additional spacecraft under construction with Space Systems/Loral, but NSS-12 marks the first SS/L launch for the SES Group," said Martin Halliwell, President of SES ENGINEERING. "We look forward to another Ariane-5 success as the combined teams of Arianespace, Space Systems/Loral and SES go through the NSS-12 launch count down over the next few weeks." SES World Skies is the new global division of SES, created through the combination of the former SES NEW SKIES and SES AMERICOM. The company operates a fleet of 25 satellites - part of the 40 spacecraft of the SES group - delivering services as diverse as television distribution and broadcast, internet access, data transmission and business and government communications to customers worldwide. SES wholly owns the satellite operators SES Astra and SES World Skies, 90 percent of SES SIRIUS in Europe, and strategic participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]