SES-17 now fully operational
June 16, 2022
By Chris Forrester
SES-17, the satellite operator’s latest orbital asset, has been declared fully operational.
SES-17 is a Ka-band craft serving the Americas, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean from 67.1 degrees West. The all-electric propulsion satellite has reached orbit on schedule after months of in-orbit raising and successful in-orbit testing.
SES says that this very high throughput SES-17 satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space, is ready to provide connectivity services to customers across aeronautical, maritime, enterprise, and government markets whether on land, at sea, or in the skies.
SES-17’s anchor partner, Thales InFlyt Experience, will leverage SES-17 for FlytLive, a next-generation aviation connectivity solution enhancing Wi-Fi experiences onboard commercial aircraft across the Americas and the Caribbean. Moreover, key enterprise customers in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, including SSi Canada and COMNET, will now expand the reach and capability of their broadband networks to more remote areas.
“With a fully digital payload powered by the most powerful digital transponder processor in orbit, an unmatched flexibility and nearly 200 user beams, SES-17 marks not only a significant development in satellite technology, but also is a first step in the integration of SES’s multi-orbit network. The spacecraft’s digital payload is supported by the Adaptive Resource Control (ARC) software, making it interoperable with SES’s second-generation O3b mPOWER satellite communications system in medium Earth orbit (MEO), set to launch in the coming months,” said an SES press release.
“We are excited to have the highly-anticipated SES-17 satellite start delivering services, while redefining and transforming the digital landscape for many different applications across the Americas and ultimately bringing high-speed connectivity to people wherever they are,” commented Ruy Pinto, CTO at SES. “At SES, we are extremely thankful to our partners at Thales Alenia Space and Arianespace that have shared our vision at each step of SES-17’s journey to orbit.”
SES-17 was successfully launched onboard an Ariane 5 launcher operated by Arianespace from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on October 23rd 2021 at 11:10 pm local time (02:10 am UTC). SES-17 is the 37th SES satellite launched by Arianespace and the 30th built by Thales Alenia Space, joining the current SES satellite network of 70 satellites.