Boeing to Build 10th Satellite for Europe’s Leading Satellite Services Provider
Societe Europeenne des
Satellites (SES) of Luxembourg, the operator of Europe’s leading ASTRA
direct-to-home (DTH) Satellite System, has ordered its 10th satellite
from the world’s largest satellite manufacturer, Boeing Satellite
Systems, formerly Hughes Space and Communications Company.
The satellite, ASTRA 3A, is a high-power Boeing 376HP model
spacecraft and is scheduled for launch in 2002. The contract also
includes launch services and ground station control software. The
launch provider under this delivery-in-orbit contract will be
announced at a later date, and financial terms were not disclosed.
“Boeing Satellite Systems has been building satellites for SES,
one of our largest customers, since 1990,” said Tig H. Krekel,
president of Boeing Satellite Systems. “At that rate, we have
essentially built one satellite for every year of our relationship.
That’s a tremendous endorsement of our systems and technology, and
once again we are proud to support SES and pleased that they have
returned to us once again.”
ASTRA 3A will augment SES’s existing fleet of 13 to help meet
growing demand for digital satellite services. The payload consisting
of 24 Ku-band transponders, 20 active, will provide high-power DTH
services to the German-speaking markets of Germany, Austria and
Switzerland from SES’s new orbital position of 23.5 degrees East
longitude. The ASTRA 3A satellite will have a contracted service life
of at least 10 years.
“With this new procurement, SES renews its confidence in the
world’s leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites,
having delivered already seven out of 10 existing satellites in the
ASTRA constellation,” said Romain Bausch, director general and
chairman of the Management Committee of SES.
“SES is confident that ASTRA 3A, like ASTRA 2C and ASTRA 2D, also
currently under construction with Boeing Satellite Systems, will once
again meet SES’s stringent quality standards for high-performance
spacecraft. Positioned at 23.5 degrees East, ASTRA 3A will provide SES
with new business opportunities.
“In the immediate neighborhood of 19.2 degrees East — today
undisputedly the hottest orbital position for DTH reception of
German-language television, radio and multimedia programming in Europe
— ASTRA 3A will offer competitively priced transmission capacity for
Internet and broadband services targeting the German language markets
in Europe,” Bausch concluded.
Societe Europeenne des Satellites S.A. (SES) is the operator of
ASTRA, Europe’s leading direct-to-home satellite system. Via 10
satellites at the orbital positions of 19.2 degrees East and 28.2
degrees East, ASTRA transmits in analog and digital more than 1,030
different television and radio channels as well as multimedia and
Internet services to an audience of close to 80 million homes in
Europe.
Four additional satellites are under construction and due for
launch before mid-2002. SES is also a strategic investor in the
leading Asian/Pacific AsiaSat Satellite System (34.13 percent since
January 1999), Scandinavian Sirius satellite operator Nordic Satellite
Company NSAB (50 percent since October 2000), and Brazilian Embratel
Satellite Division, operator of the Latin American Brasilsat system
(19.99 percent, also since October 2000).
BSS is the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial
communications satellites and a major provider of space systems,
satellites and payloads for national defense, science and
environmental applications.
The company was formed in October 2000 when Boeing acquired the
Hughes Electronics satellite manufacturing companies, which included
Hughes Space and Communications Company, Hughes Electron Dynamics,
Spectrolab Inc., and Hughes Electronics’ 50 percent share of HRL
Laboratories.
The Boeing Company , with headquarters in Seattle, is the
largest aerospace company in the world and the United States’ leading
exporter. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial
jetliners and military aircraft, and the largest NASA contractor.
The company’s capabilities in aerospace also include rotorcraft,
electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines, launch
vehicles, and advanced information and communication systems. The
company has an extensive global reach with customers in 145 countries
and manufacturing operations throughout the United States, Canada and
Australia. At year-end 1999, Boeing and its subsidiaries employed
197,100 people.
