SES still has another satellite to order
February 17, 2015
Ordering three satellites in one day may not be a world record, but it has to be close. On February 16th, advanced-television reported the details of the order by Luxembourg’s SES. On February 17th, the satellite operator confirmed that there could be more to go, and that the company has plans to order up to $1.25 billion-worth of satellites and representing four new craft.
According to the company’s president/CEO Karim Michel Sabbagh, the three new satellites “will support our growth and add significant high-power capacity to all four key strategic business verticals – video, data, mobility and government. These fleet investments – all delivered within SES’s forecast CapEx envelope – enable us to differentiate our service offering in our target markets and set the foundation for continued growth. They will allow us to capture the significant potential of numerous vibrant regions and market segments, including DTH in Latin America, and mobility in the aeronautical and maritime sector throughout the Americas and the North Atlantic, as well as powerful end-to-end solutions for governments, defence and security.”
The three new SES satellites (one of which has a j-v role with the Luxembourg Government) means that the company now has seven craft under procurement, of which six are delivering expansion to overall capacity.
SES-14 and SES-15 are both powerful hybrid satellites, using Ku-, Ka- and – in the case of SES-14 – also C-band in wide-beam and high-throughput (HTS) technology and a purely electric propulsion system that significantly enhances the satellites’ economic efficiency thanks to the enhanced payload that can be carried as a result of the reduction in fuel mass.
SES will unveil its latest set of financials on February 20th.