SES Astra SA was a corporate subsidiary of SES , based in Betzdorf , in eastern Luxembourg , that maintained and operated the Astra series of geostationary communication satellites between 2001 and 2011.
76-592: Formed in 1985 as Société Européenne des Satellites ( SES ), it was Europe's first private satellite operator. In November 2001, upon the purchase of GE Americom from General Electric (renamed to SES Americom), SES Global was formed as the parent company to SES Americom and SES Astra. SES Astra was formed at that time as a subsidiary company to contain all of SES's existing European based satellite operations. In September 2011, SES Astra and sister subsidiary SES World Skies (formed from SES Americom and SES New Skies) were merged back into SES to streamline operations under
152-669: A Samsung 82in Q950RB production model TV. In September 2019, SES announced it had partnered with satellite payload and network management systems developer, Kythera Space Solutions to develop the ARC (Adaptive Resource Control) software to enable the dynamic control and optimisation of power, throughput, beams and frequency allocation on O3b mPOWER , SES-17 and other future high-throughput satellites and their networks, autonomously optimizing space and ground resources, on-the-fly, in accordance with customers' changing needs. O3b O3b
228-533: A SpaceX Falcon 9 Full Thrust from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral , Florida. In June 2017, SES announced the start of a 30-month project by the Satellite and Terrestrial Network for 5G (SaT5G) consortium for the seamless, and economically viable, integration of satellite (such as SES' geostationary orbit and medium Earth orbit high throughput satellites) into future 5G networks, improving
304-668: A direct-to-home dish . Another 67.8 million households received Astra services via a cable headend , and 9.8 million households received Astra services via an IPTV network. The satellite constellation was broadcasting 200 high-definition television channels. Sixteen million households watched high-definition TV channels via Astra satellites. SES Astra was involved in the introduction of digital TV , HDTV , and 3D TV in Europe. The first high-definition TV channel in Europe (Euro1080) broadcast via Astra 19.2°E and SES Astra both supported new HDTV channels and pressed for standards, founding
380-473: A latency five times lower than on the existing platform based on geostationary orbit satellites. On 16 December 2022, the first two of SES's next generation MEO satellite constellation, O3b mPOWER were successfully launched. The satellites will take approximately six months to reach their designated medium Earth orbit and for commissioning, and the O3b mPower service is expected to begin operations alongside
456-534: A medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellation to deliver high-speed, low-latency, fibre-like internet broadband trunking to the world's emerging regions ("the O ther 3 b illion"). In 2010, SES grew its stake in SES Sirius to 100% and closed the acquisition of the in-orbit satellite Protostar-2/Indostar-2, renaming it SES-7 and integrating it into its fleet covering India and Southeast Asia . In May and September 2011, SES restructured and rebranded
532-678: A 10-week delay due to the postponement of all launches by launch services provider ILS after a catastrophic failure of the rocket in a previous launch. In December 2013, SES-8 was launched from Cape Canaveral using a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 , the first geostationary satellite to be launched with a SpaceX rocket. In March 2014, Astra 5B was launched as SES' 56th satellite to the Astra 31.5° East position from Kourou in French Guiana to provide transponder capacity and extend geographical reach over Central and Eastern Europe , Russia and
608-643: A 34.13% stake in Hong Kong-based satellite operator AsiaSat and took a foothold in Asia and the Pacific region. A year later, SES acquired 50% of Scandinavian satellite broadcaster Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB), later renamed SES Sirius , which strengthened SES' coverage in northern and eastern Europe. The same year, SES also took a participation of 19.99% in Brazilian satellite operator Star One , gaining
684-468: A TV-module to enable existing UHD TVs to display the channel. SES claimed the launch of Viasat Ultra HD will bring the number of UHD channels (including test channels and regional versions) carried on SES satellites to 24, or 46% of all UHD channels broadcast via satellite worldwide. On 30 March 2017, the SES-10 satellite was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using
760-536: A contract to provide O3b's high throughput, low latency satellite communications for a US Department of Defense end-user. The agreement is for a 365 days-per-year service consisting of a full-duplex symmetric 155 Mbit/s link, gateway access, a transportable 2.4 metre terminal, terrestrial backhaul, and maintenance and installation services, with a latency of under 200 milliseconds per round trip. The contract also provides for additional capacity to meet surge requirements. In September 2017, SES announced O3b mPOWER ,
836-401: A contract with Viasat for the production and installation of Ka-band infrastructure. In July 2014, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense ), a subsidiary of (then O3b investor, now owner) SES, received approval to offer O3b services on their General Services Administration (GSA) schedule allowing SES GS to be the first distribution partner to offer O3b capability directly to
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#1732780596565912-418: A day. Due to problems with a component of the first four satellites launched, three of those four have been placed on standby. Each satellite is equipped with twelve fully steerable Ka-band antennas (two beams for gateways, ten beams for remotes) that use 4.3 GHz of spectrum (2 × 216 MHz per beam) with a proposed throughput of 1.6 Gbit /s per beam (800 Mbit/s per direction), resulting in
988-643: A division of Thales Group . The first satellite (PFM) was built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center , while the rest of the constellation was assembled, integrated and tested in Thales Alenia Space Italy's Roman facilities. In September 2017, SES announced the next generation of O3b satellites and placed an order for an initial seven from Boeing Satellite Systems using a new satellite platform based on Boeing's 702 line of scalable buses. Expected to launch in 2021,
1064-586: A first presence in Latin America . In 2001, SES bought 28.75% of Argentina's Nahuelsat and acquired GE Americom , giving it a solid presence in the important North American market. This resulted in the formation of SES Global, a corporate entity with two operating companies, SES Astra and SES Americom . Altogether, SES operated a fleet of 41 geostationary satellites, the largest in the world in 2001. Further acquisitions followed. In 2003, SES' stake in NSAB
1140-553: A fixed receiving dish, creating what became known as a 'satellite neighbourhood'. Astra's prime slot, 19.2° East, saw as many as eight satellites sharing the position simultaneously and helped to build up Astra's reputation for reliability. Rapid growth in Germany , in what would become Astra's largest European market, was helped by the German government's decision to liberalize the installation of dishes in 1991. In this time SES became
1216-865: A fleet of more than 50 satellites. Bausch continues to serve SES as a non-executive Director, and is elected to take the role of chairman at the start of 2015. He was succeeded as CEO by Karim Michel Sabbagh. In May 2014 SES announced that the engineering services division, SES TechCom had joined with the Luxembourg Government and the Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, and five Non-governmental organisations (NGO) – Archemed, Fondation Follereau, Friendship, German Doctors and Médecins Sans Frontières to form Satmed , an eHealth platform to improve public health in emerging and developing countries, especially in remote areas with poor connectivity. In July 2014, SES announced that nearly half of
1292-500: A low Earth orbit of under 2000 km altitude where latency can be as little 40ms, and by 2018 more than 18,000 new LEO satellites had been proposed to launch by 2025. However, a lower orbit also has drawbacks; satellites move faster relative to the ground and can "see" a smaller area of the Earth , and so for continuous widespread access require a constellation of many satellites, with complex constellation management and tracking by
1368-522: A maximum of US$ 516.7 million over a five-year period. In September 2019, SES became a Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute services partner to provide dedicated, private network connectivity from sea vessels, aircraft, and industrial or government sites anywhere in the world to the Azure cloud computing service, via both its geostationary satellites and O3b MEO satellites. In August 2020 SES contracted Boeing to build four O3b mPOWER satellites in addition to
1444-584: A new segment which was branded SES World Skies in September 2009. In 2009, SES and Middle East satellite operator Yahsat announced the formation of a joint venture, YahLive, to commercialise 23 Ku-band transponders on Yahsat 1A, serving the Middle East, North Africa and Western Asia with direct-to-home TV services. Also in 2009, SES announced its investment in O3b Networks a project to build
1520-491: A number of SES' (GEO) satellites including GovSat-1 , and the O3b satellite constellation , with connections moving between GEO/MEO links in under 30 sec. In May 2022, in conjunction with Kazakhstani mobile network operator, Kcell , SES used the O3b satellite constellation to demonstrate that MEO satellites could be used to provide high-speed 3G and 4G connectivity to remote regions of Kazakhstan for reliable video calling, conferencing and streaming, and web browsing, with
1596-624: A one-year contract with US government scientific agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to supply O3b services and ground equipment to the National Weather Service Office in American Samoa , expanding NOAA's broadband connectivity outside the continental United States to provide weather, water, and climate data, and forecasts and warnings to American Samoa. In August 2016, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense ) announced
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#17327805965651672-642: A refurbished first stage booster that had been previously used to launch a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA in April 2016 and then landed and recovered. This is the first time that a rocket booster has been reused in this way. Both the Falcon 9 first stage and the payload fairing were successfully recovered after the SES-10 launch for subsequent reuse. SES-10
1748-632: A services portfolio beyond just bandwidth provision. Also in 2006, SES acquired New Skies Satellites , later renamed SES New Skies, adding six satellites to the SES fleet and strengthening coverage in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In 2007, SES divested from its holdings in AsiaSat and Star One in a complex transaction with General Electric which itself divested from SES. In 2008, SES increased its stake in NSAB to 90%. and merged its two international operating units, SES Americom and SES New Skies into
1824-450: A single management system. Subsidiaries of SES Astra, such as HD Plus and ASTRA Broadband Services became direct subsidiaries of SES. The brand name, Astra , representing the satellite family and the broadcasting system continues to be used and, although the corporate website (www.ses-astra.com) was closed when SES Astra was consolidated into the parent, the consumer site ( astra.ses ) remains in operation. A book, High Above , telling
1900-673: A total capacity of 16 Gbit/s per satellite. Each beam's footprint measures 700 km (430 mi) in diameter. O3b claims a mouth-to-ear one-way latency of 179 milliseconds for voice communication, and an end-to-end round-trip latency of 140 ms for data services. The maximum throughput per TCP connection is 2.1 Mbit/s. For maritime applications, O3b claims a round-trip latency of 140 ms, and connectivity speeds of over 500 Mbit/s. The satellites are powered by gallium arsenide solar arrays and lithium-ion batteries and weigh approximately 700 kg (1,500 lb) each. The satellites were constructed by Thales Alenia Space ,
1976-503: Is a satellite constellation in Medium Earth orbit ( MEO ) owned and operated by SES , and designed to provide lower-latency broadband connectivity to remote locations for mobile network operators and internet service providers, maritime, aviation, and government and defence. It is often referred to as O3b MEO to distinguish these satellites from SES's O3b mPOWER constellation. O3b originally stood for "other three billion", or
2052-432: Is a Luxembourgish satellite telecommunications network provider supplying video and data connectivity worldwide to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions. SES is one of the world's leading satellite owners and operators with over 70 satellites in two different orbits: geostationary orbit (GEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). These include
2128-675: Is positioned at 67.0° West to serve Latin America. In April 2017, the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs extended the contract with SES to maintain, support, and continue to develop the Satmed eHealth platform to improve public health in remote areas of developing countries until 2020, extending the provision of satellite connectivity over Africa, the Philippines and Bangladesh. In May 2017, SES announced
2204-423: The 19.2° East orbital position. Rupert Murdoch 's Sky TV , along with German broadcasters Pro7 , Sat.1 , and RTL were among Astra's first major customers. By 1990, Astra was broadcasting to 14 million cable and DTH (Direct to Home) viewers. SES was the pioneer of 'co-location' by which several satellites share the same orbital position to provide mutual backup and increase the number of channels available to
2280-527: The Amazon Web Services Direct Connect Delivery Partner programme, using the O3b constellation (and SES' fleet of geostationary satellites) to provide customers access to AWS cloud-based applications and services from locations around the world with limited or no terrestrial communications, and to provide the cloud provider a backup network if their infrastructure fails. In August 2021, Microsoft became
2356-684: The Astra 28.2°E position on 1 October 2010. SES Astra was a member of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies that is promoting and establishing an open European standard (called HbbTV) for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface. 49°41′39″N 06°19′49″E / 49.69417°N 6.33028°E / 49.69417; 6.33028 SES (company) SES S.A. , trading as SES
SES Astra - Misplaced Pages Continue
2432-520: The Astra 3B satellite. In September 2018, in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of July 2018 from the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz spectrum available for next-generation terrestrial fixed and mobile broadband services, SES, along with Intelsat , Eutelsat and Telesat - together providing the majority of C-band satellite services in
2508-611: The Caribbean . The satellite has 43 C-band and 48 Ku-band transponders with comprehensive coverage of North America , Latin America, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean . Astra 2E was launched to the Astra 28.2° East position from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on 30 September 2013 to provide free-to-air and encrypted DTH digital TV and satellite broadband services for Europe and the Middle East. The successful launch followed
2584-517: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for DTH , direct-to-cable and contribution feeds to digital terrestrial television networks. In April 2014, Romain Bausch stepped down as president and CEO of SES, a position he had held since 1995 overseeing the growth of the company from a European Direct-to-Home satellite system with four satellites into a global satellite industry leader operating
2660-1102: The Global Mercy , the world's largest civilian hospital ship. In February 2021, SES announced two contracts with the US Department of Defense as part of the June 2018 blanket purchase agreement . One is for a portable O3b service to support forward-deployed military personnel and the second to provide O3b mission-critical communications without using a commercial gateway in remote locations in Southwest Asia, managed and controlled from an SES Network Operations Center. Also in February 2021, SES announced that its Signature Cruise broadband connectivity via O3b will be used on Virgin Voyages ' latest ships Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady to provide passengers with free fast onboard wi-fi internet access. In June 2021, SES joined
2736-484: The O3b mPOWER constellation of medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites for broadband internet services will "be able to deliver anywhere from hundreds of megabits to 10 gigabits to any ship at sea" through 30,000 spot beams. Software-defined routing will direct traffic between the mPOWER MEO satellites and SES' geostationary fleet. In August 2020, SES contracted Boeing to build four additional O3b mPOWER satellites and SpaceX
2812-595: The SES-11 satellite to the geostationary orbital position of 105.0° West. The launch was originally set for late 2016 but suffered a year-long delay because of SpaceX's September 2016 Falcon 9 explosion. SES-11 was built by Airbus Defence and Space and is a dual mission satellite, with 24 Ku-band transponders marketed by EchoStar as EchoStar 105 to replace capacity on SES' AMC-15 satellite, and 24 C-band transponders marketed by SES as SES-11 for replacement capacity for AMC-18 delivering video, especially HD and UHD , to
2888-651: The SES-9 satellite was successfully launched by a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket from Cape Canaveral after four previous attempts on 24 February, 25 February, 28 February, and 1 March 2016 - all aborted due to weather and launcher problems. The satellite used electric propulsion to reach geostationary orbit and will be positioned at 108.2° East to provide 81 Ku-band transponder equivalents for pay-TV , data and mobility across Northeast Asia and South Asia , and Indonesia . In April 2016, SES announced that (subject to regulatory approvals which are expected to be completed by
2964-455: The U.S. Government . In November 2014, MS Quantum of the Seas became the first cruise ship to provide fast internet to guests through O3b Networks. The service is branded "Voom" by its cruise line, Royal Caribbean International and it was subsequently rolled out to every ship in their fleet. In August 2015, SES subsidiary, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense ) agreed on
3040-514: The United States , Mexico and the Caribbean . Following positioning at 105.0° West and in-orbit testing, SES-11 was declared fully operational on 29 November 2017. In February 2018, SES teamed up with Intelsat (later joined by Eutelsat in July 2018) for a proposal to United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to form a consortium of satellite service providers to protect
3116-914: The Azure cloud computing service. Under their agreement, SES and Microsoft will jointly invest in Azure Orbital ground stations for the MEO and Earth Observation segments, initially in the United States, which will be installed and managed by SES. Also, satellite telemetry, tracking and control systems and data ground stations for the O3b mPOWER satellites will be located with Microsoft's Azure edge sites to provide O3b mPOWER customers with "one-hop" access to Azure cloud services. In October 2020, international charity hospital ships provider, Mercy Ships announced it will be using SES's Signature Maritime connectivity services via O3b satellites to provide remote viewing and diagnosis, and remote training on board
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3192-590: The Caribbean using the SES-10 satellite at 67.0° West. In May 2018, SES broadcast an 8K television signal via its satellite system for the first time, as part of its Industry Days conference at the Luxembourg HQ. The 8K demonstration content, with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, a frame rate of 60 frames per second and 10-bit colour depth, was encoded in HEVC and transmitted at a rate of 80 Mbit/s via
3268-672: The European HDTV Forum and the HD ready TV specification. SES Astra has also been prominent in the development and roll-out of commercial 3D TV services for Europe, and in September 2010 announced an initiative with the backing of the major European public and private broadcasters and the consumer electronics industry, to support the introduction of 3D TV in Europe, including agreement on the minimum technical specifications required for broadcasting and receiving 3D television. Europe's first commercial 3D TV channel, Sky 3D launched from
3344-555: The Middle East and Africa, and to connect West Africa to Europe via Ka-band . On 13 January 2015, SES announced that it plans to procure and launch a satellite in partnership with the Luxembourg Government , to be called GovSat-1 . Jointly owned, the satellite is launched in 2017 to an orbital position above Europe and provide governmental and military communications in the X-band and Ka-band with coverage of Europe,
3420-468: The Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific . In February 2016, it was announced that, subject to regulatory approvals, subsidiary, SES Platform Services would purchase RR Media , a global digital media services provider to the broadcast and media industries, based in Israel . In July 2016, SES announced that the acquisition was complete and that the merged company would be known as MX1 . In March 2016,
3496-561: The O3b system started full commercial service on 1 September 2014. The third launch of four took place in December 2014, bringing the satellite constellation to 12 satellites. Four years later, four additional satellites were launched on 9 March 2018 on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Centre Spatial Guyanais . In December 2018, Thales Alenia Space said that tests on the final four O3b satellites would be completed by
3572-651: The SES satellite fleet is controlled from the new satellite operations center (SOC) opened at its sales and engineering offices in Princeton , New Jersey . 23 satellites are controlled from Princeton with the remainder operated from SES's global headquarters in Luxembourg . Astra 2G , the final "next generation" satellite for the 28.2° East orbital position was launched from the Baikonur in December 2014 to deliver broadcast, VSAT and broadband services to Europe,
3648-693: The US Army has conducted trials of commercial satellite constellations in multiple orbits, including the O3b satellite system, as part of the effort to establish Multi-Domain Operations . In December 2021, Honeywell , Hughes Network Systems and SES demonstrated multi-orbit high-speed airborne connectivity for military customers using Honeywell's JetWave MCX terminal and a Hughes HM-series modem, and SES satellites in both medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). The tests achieved full duplex data rates of more than 40 megabits per second via
3724-584: The US from potential interference. In April 2019, four O3b medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites were launched by Arianespace at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou , French Guiana to complete the constellation of 20 first generation satellites for the SES-owned network communications service provider. In May 2019, for the first time in Europe, 8K demonstration content was received via satellite without
3800-537: The United States, including media distribution reaching 100 million United States households - established the C-Band Alliance (CBA). The consortium's proposal to the FCC is to act as a facilitator for the clearing and repurposing of a 200 MHz portion of C-band spectrum to accelerate the deployment of next generation 5G services while protecting incumbent users and their content distribution and data networks in
3876-464: The company to streamline the organisation's activities under a single management team and one main brand (SES), incorporating the company's two previous operating entities, SES Astra and SES World Skies . In August 2011, the Astra 1N satellite was launched to the 28.2° East orbital position, and in September 2011, the QuetzSat 1 satellite was launched to 77.0° West In February 2012, SES-4
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#17327805965653952-533: The company was renamed SES Global in 2001 and has been simply "SES" since 2006. The company's stock is listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris with the ticker symbol SESG and is a component of the LuxX , CAC Next 20 and Euronext 100 stock market indexes . A book, High Above , telling the story of the founding of SES and the development of its first Astra satellites
4028-849: The completion of the capital raising and completion of the acquisition. In May 2016, Modern Times Group , owner of the Viasat DTH platform announced that the Viasat Ultra HD channel would launch in the autumn on the SES-5 satellite at 5.0° East , as the first UHD channel for the Nordic region and the first UHD Sports channel in the World. The channel will feature selected live sport events especially produced in Ultra HD and Viasat will also be launching an Ultra HD set-top box from Samsung and
4104-406: The end of 2016) it will pay US$ 20 million to increase its fully diluted ownership of O3b Networks from 49.1% to 50.5%, taking a controlling share in the company. In May 2016, SES said it would raise another US$ 710 million to purchase 100% of O3b Networks, exercising a call option with O3b minority shareholders and eliminating the possibility of an O3b stock offering, and then subsequently announced
4180-470: The end of January 2019 and the four satellites were successfully launched on 4 April 2019. In 2010, operators in the Cook Islands , Pakistan and Nigeria were among the first to prebook capacity on the O3b constellation to serve their respective markets. In 2010, O3b announced the selection of Europe Media Port to be the first provider of Gateway Teleport services for O3b's global network and
4256-517: The existing O3b constellation in Q3 2023. The second pair of O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched on 28 April 2023, by which time the first pair of satellites had reached medium Earth orbit and were undergoing in-orbit testing. The satellites are deployed in a circular orbit along the equator at an altitude of 8,063 km (5,010 mi) ( medium Earth orbit ) at a velocity of approximately 11,755 mph (18,918 km/h), each making 5 orbits
4332-523: The first cloud provider customer for O3b, with Microsoft buying managed satellite connectivity services from SES for the Microsoft Azure cloud computing service. Microsoft is initially using the existing first generation O3b satellites, later upgrading to the faster broadband speeds from second generation O3b mPOWER satellites. In December 2021, SES's wholly owned subsidiary SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense ) announced that
4408-485: The first four O3b satellites reached orbit on a Soyuz-2 / Fregat-MT launch vehicle by Arianespace on 25 June 2013. After discovering a hardware defect in the initial satellites, O3b postponed the planned September 2013 launch of four additional satellites so repairs could be made. The second four satellites were launched by the same type of rocket from the Space Center in French Guiana , on 10 July 2014 and
4484-639: The focus for HTS to lower orbits. The lower the altitude of the orbit, the closer the satellite is to the Earth and the lower the latency and path losses (enabling lower ground station and satellite power, and costs for the same throughput) The propagation delay for a round-trip internet protocol transmission via a geosynchronous satellite can be over 550 ms, and such latency is the bane of digital connectivity, in particular for automated stock trades, hardcore gaming and Skype video chats. So, many proposed non-geosynchronous satellite internet services have adopted
4560-579: The leading satellite system providing direct-to-home transmission, and became the world's largest satellite platform for TV distribution. In 1996, after the launch of Astra 1E , SES pioneered digital satellite transmission with the French Canal+ . In 1998, SES launched Astra 2A for the UK market, transmitting at the new orbital position 28.2° East, and eventually moving all of its United Kingdom and Ireland transmission capacity to this orbital slot. In
4636-412: The need for a separate external receiver or decoder. At the 2019, SES Industry Days conference at Betzdorf , Luxembourg broadcast quality 8K content (with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels at 50 frames/s) was encoded using a Spin Digital HEVC encoder (at a bit rate of 70 Mbit/s), uplinked to a single 33 MHz transponder on SES' Astra 28.2°E satellites and the downlink received and displayed on
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#17327805965654712-618: The next generation of MEO satellites to expand the capacity of the existing O3b constellation of (then) 12 satellites. Initially seven O3b mPOWER satellites were ordered from Boeing for launch in 2021 to provide flexible and scalable, low-latency satellite-based networks with terabits of throughput. In June 2018, the US Department of Defense signed a single-award blanket purchase agreement with SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense ) for MEO high throughput, low latency satellite services including managed broadband services, gateway services, and monitoring and control services, to
4788-402: The next generation of O3b satellites and service. Named O3b mPOWER , the new constellation of (initially) seven MEO satellites built by Boeing Satellite Systems will deliver 10 terabits of capacity globally through 30,000 spot beams for broadband internet services. O3b mPOWER is expected to launch in 2021. On 11 October 2017, a flight-proven (refurbished) SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched
4864-418: The other three billion people at the time that did not have stable internet access, and the constellation was initially built, owned and operated by O3b Networks , which became a wholly owned subsidiary of SES in 2016 and ownership and operation of the constellation passed to SES Networks , a division of SES. The O3b MEO constellation began offering service in March 2014. Initially planned to launch in 2010,
4940-493: The quality and reliability of existing video and audio services to United States households downlinking in the 3700-4200 MHz C-band spectrum while enabling wireless operators to access 100 MHz of C-band spectrum for deployment of next generation 5G services in the United States. In March 2018, Saint Martin -based satellite TV provider KiwiSAT launched a new DTH platform to deliver about 130 channels (including 90 HD channels) of TV entertainment to consumers across
5016-533: The same year, SES went public on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange trading as SESG (in 2005 SES would also list on the Paris Euronext). From 1999, SES began a period of ambitious global expansion beyond its European home market. Geographic expansion went hand-in-hand with the diversification of SES' services beyond just TV broadcasting, to cover telecommunication services for businesses, telecommunications companies and government customers, as well as broadband access and technical consultancy services. In 1999, SES acquired
5092-421: The seven ordered in 2017. SpaceX was contracted for additional launches, to make four launches for the whole O3b mPOWER constellation, expected in 2021–2024. In September 2020, SES and Microsoft announced that SES was the medium Earth orbit connectivity partner for the Microsoft Azure Orbital ground station service that enables network operators to control their satellite operations and capacity from within
5168-470: The story of the creation and development of Astra, SES, and SES Astra, and the history of recent developments of the European TV and media industry, along with their context in the wider development of broadcasting and space technology, was published in April 2010 to mark the 25th anniversary of SES. At the end of 2011, Astra satellite broadcasts were received in over 135 million households in Europe and North Africa; 57.6 million households in Astra services via
5244-440: The successful integration with the SES-14 satellite of the NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) scientific hosted payload built by the University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics . The first scientific payload carried by an SES satellite, GOLD was integrated with SES-14 at Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse , France ahead of its launch to 47.5° West in late 2017 on
5320-514: The ubiquity, resilience and efficiency of 5G services, and opening new markets in media distribution, transport and underserved areas. The consortium is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme and comprises 16 members, including SES and Airbus Defence and Space , Avanti Communications , British Telecom , Broadpeak, Gilat Satellite Networks , OneAccess, Thales Alenia Space , TNO , University of Surrey , and Zodiac Inflight Innovation . In September 2017, SES announced
5396-492: The well-known European Astra TV satellites, the O3b and O3b mPOWER data satellites and others with names including AMC , Ciel , NSS , Quetzsat , YahSat and SES . In April 2024, SES announced the acquisition of satellite services provider, Intelsat to create a more competitive multi-orbit satellite operator. The transaction is expected to complete regulatory approvals in 2025. Based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg and founded in 1985 as Société Européenne des Satellites ,
5472-623: Was contracted for an additional two launches, to make four launches for the whole O3b mPOWER constellation in 2022–2024. O3b MEO is currently the only high-throughput satellite (HTS) system for internet services to use the medium Earth orbit; most other existing and proposed systems use satellites in either geosynchronous orbit (GEO) or low Earth orbit (LEO). Although previous satellite internet services primarily used geosynchronous satellites (SES has four geostationary HTS in orbit – Astra 2E , SES-12 , SES-14 and SES-15 ), demand for increased bandwidth and for lower latency has shifted
5548-543: Was increased to 75% and in 2005 SES acquired a participation in Canadian satellite operator Ciel and in Mexico's Quetzsat , as well as the divestment from Nahuelsat. SES acquired services provider, Digital Playout Centre GmbH (later Astra Platform Services , then SES Platform Services , then MX1 , now merged into SES) in 2005. and in 2006 SES also acquired ND SatCom, a German provider of government services, developing
5624-516: Was published in 2010 to mark the company's 25th Anniversary, and was followed by Even Higher in 2012 and Beyond Frontiers in 2016. SES was formed on the initiative and support of the Luxembourgish government in 1985 as S ociété E uropéenne des S atellites (SES). The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg remains a major shareholder . In December 1988, as Europe's first private satellite operator, SES launched its first satellite, Astra 1A , to
5700-742: Was successfully launched from Kourou in French Guiana , the first of three "next generation" satellites at the second Astra orbital position at 28.2° East. The satellite has Ku-band coverage of all Europe, the British Isles and sub-Saharan Africa for DTH television , and Ka-band coverage of Central Europe for the SES Broadband satellite internet service. SES-6 was launched from Baikonur , Kazakhstan on 3 June 2013 to 40.5° East, to replace NSS-806 and provide continuity of service and expansion capacity in C-band for Latin America and
5776-664: Was successfully launched to become SES' 50th satellite and the largest, heaviest and most powerful in the fleet. In July 2012, SES-5 , the 51st SES Satellite was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan to 5.0° East with 36 Ku-band transponders to provide coverage over Sub-Saharan Africa and the Nordic and the Baltic regions in Europe , and 28 C-band transponders for Europe, Africa and the Middle East . In September 2012, Astra 2F
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