SES has selected Airbus Defence and Space to build a new hybrid communications satellite, SES-12, to serve the fast growing DTH, Data, Mobility and Government markets in Asia.

The new satellite will expand SES's capabilities to provide direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting, VSAT, Mobility and High Throughput Satellite (HTS) data connectivity services in the Asia-Pacific region, including rapidly growing markets such as India and Indonesia.

The spacecraft will be positioned at the well-established SES orbital slot of 95 degrees East, providing incremental as well as replacement capacity with excellent view angles across the Asia-Pacific region. SES-12 will replace SES's existing NSS-6 satellite and will be co-located with SES-8.

Today, SES serves close to 20 million DTH households in India and Indochina from this orbital slot. SES-12 will be built by Airbus Defence and Space based on the highly reliable Eurostar E3000 platform.

The satellite is designed to operate for 15 years, with a payload comprised of 68 high-power physical Ku-band transponders and 8 physical Ka-band transponders. The spacecraft will be equipped with an electric plasma propulsion system for orbit raising and on-orbit manoeuvres.

The payload of the hybrid SES-12 satellite consists of two distinct but complementary missions: first, traditional wide beam coverage, and second, a high-powered Ku-band multi spot beam payload (HTS). The traditional wide-beam mission consists of 54 (36 MHz equivalent) transponders that will provide state-of-the-art replacement and growth capacity for SES's existing DTH, Government and VSAT customers allowing for a seamless transition from NSS-6 to SES-12.

In addition, the design provides incremental growth capacity to support new DTH platforms and other services targeting the Asia-Pacific region. The second mission consists of 70 Ku-band spot beams and 11 Ka-band spot beams delivering over 14 GHz for VSAT, Enterprise, Mobility and Government applications.

This mission also includes a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) which provides anti-jamming capabilities as well as increased payload flexibility in order to provide customized bandwidth solutions to SES customers. SES-12 is the 11th spacecraft that SES has ordered from Airbus Defence and Space. Financial details are not being disclosed.

A launch vehicle for SES-12 will be announced at a later stage. Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer of SES, states: "We look forward to working again with Airbus Defence and Space on this important addition to our global fleet. SES-12 will greatly expand our capacity over Asia and is fully in line with our capital expenditure plan.

:Through its unique hybrid DTH/HTS design, SES-12 will continue to support our growing DTH platforms and provide a new, lower cost HTS product, further enhancing our customer's options for growth."