SES S.A. reports that the SES-2 satellite has safely arrived at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The SES-2 spacecraft, manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will now be readied for launch on board an Ariane 5 ECA booster, scheduled for lift-off early September, 2011.

SES-2 is a hybrid C- and Ku-band satellite which will replace SES' AMC-3 spacecraft at 87 degrees West and provide coverage of North America and the Caribbean.

The satellite will continue distributing advanced digital media from one of the world's largest TV neighborhoods, as well as supporting a variety of enterprise, VSAT and government customers.

The satellite's easterly location with its excellent coverage of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean was specifically designed to provide communications links to offshore platforms for customers in the oil and gas and maritime markets.

The cross-strapping capabilities from C- to Ku-band on the spacecraft will enable customers to further optimize their enterprise networks.

SES-2 is based on Orbital's space-proven Star 2.4 platform, the largest and most powerful geostationary communications satellites Orbital builds.

It carries 24 C-Band transponders and 24 Ku-Band transponders (36 MHz equivalents), generates approximately five kilowatts of payload power, and features a design life of 15 years.

The state-of-the-art spacecraft will also carry the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) sensor specially developed for the US government for testing purposes.

States Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES: "SES-2 will provide seamless replacement capacity at the important orbital position of 87 degrees West, ensuring a number of our North American customers a smooth continuation of their operations for years to come.

Fitted with CHIRP, SES' first hosted payload, SES-2 is also an important demonstration of how hosting government special purpose payloads on commercial satellites can provide cost effective means for experimenting with new technologies. We look forward to another Ariane 5 success as the combined teams of Arianespace, Orbital and SES prepare SES-2 for launch over the next few weeks."

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Related Links SES Launch Pad at Space-Travel.com