SES Americom announces AMC-5R & initiates fleet replacement

[BGonaSTICK]

SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges: SESG), announced today that it has ordered a replacement satellite, AMC-5R, plus a ground spare with an option to add up to three more spacecraft per its contract with Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB). Through this agreement, SES AMERICOM takes advantage of new advances in satellite development and incorporates some progressive design characteristics that will result in significant mission flexibility.

“Our agreement is the fruition of a significant teaming effort by SES AMERICOM’s and Orbital’s space systems’ teams to develop a new approach to satellite design and its subsequent manufacturing,” said Jim Ducay, SES AMERICOM’s Chief Operating Officer. “Their collaboration resulted in an optimum design against a defined schedule that capitalizes on savings to be realized by both parties. AMC-5R will be the first of these advanced spacecraft to be manufactured based on close-to-standardized requirements that will position SES AMERICOM to efficiently accommodate the fleet replacement cycle.”

“Orbital is very proud to have been selected by SES AMERICOM for this significant order,” said Carl Marchetto, Orbital’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Space Systems Group. “The Star 2 platform accommodates SES AMERICOM’s rigorous technical expectations and our recent expansion of the Dulles, VA satellite manufacturing facility will allow us to meet their mission and delivery requirements.”

Orbital Sciences (Orbital) will serve as the prime contractor for the new spacecraft based on the most powerful version of their STAR 2 satellite platform. AMC-5R and the identical ground spare will be hybrid satellites, each carrying 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders of 36 MHz each. A portion of each frequency payload will be cross-strapped, allowing signals to be transmitted to the satellite in one frequency and received in the other, giving customers added flexibility while enabling new service developments and enhancements. The spacecraft will generate approximately five kilowatts of payload power and will have two deployable reflectors. Deliveries of the two satellites are scheduled for mid- and late-2009, respectively.