SES S.A. and Astrium announced in December 2009 that SES has ordered four multi-mission satellites from Astrium to provide replacement as well as incremental capacity for its SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES divisions.
The new satellites, to be designated Astra 2E, Astra 2F, Astra 2G and Astra 5B, will allow the release of the existing satellites at two orbital positions (28.2 and 31.5 degrees East) and add new capacity as well as fleet deployment flexibility for the SES group over the coming years. The satellites are scheduled for launch in several steps between 2012 and 2014. The design life of each satellite is 15 years.
The four new satellites will be built on a Eurostar-3000 platform.
Astra 5B will be deployed at the orbital position 31.5 degrees East, extending SES ASTRA?s transponder capacity and geographical reach over Eastern European and neighboring markets for DTH, Direct-to-Cable (DTC) and contribution feeds to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) networks. It will also carry a hosted L-band payload for the European Commission?s European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).
Avanti has leased in September 2015 a steerable Ka-band beam on Astra 5B for the satellite?s remaining life of 13.5 years. The capacity, totaling about 3 GHz, can be targeted to Europe, the Middle East and Africa and is marketed as HYLAS 2B. The lease of the Astra 5B capacity will permit Avanti to develop a market it had intended to serve with the delayed Hylas 3 satellite.
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