LUXEMBOURG & KOUROU, French Guiana–SES S.A. (Paris:SESG.pa)(LuxX:SESG) announces that its new ASTRA 1N satellite has been successfully launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on August 6th at 19:52 pm local time (0:52 am Central European Summer Time on August 7th).
ASTRA 1N is set to deliver direct-to-home (DTH) services, notably digital and high definition (HD) television in Europe. The satellite will first provide interim replacement capacity at 28.2* East, and will subsequently be moved to 19.2* East, from where it will mainly serve the German, French and Spanish markets.
ASTRA 1N was built by Astrium on the Eurostar E3000 platform and is equipped with 52 transponders in the Ku frequency band. The satellite had a launch mass of 5,325 kg and is the fourth Eurostar satellite in the SES fleet. ASTRA 1N will be brought into commercial service within the next weeks after extensive in-orbit testing.
“The successful launch of ASTRA 1N is another important milestone in our ambitious launch manifest for 2011, which will see four additional SES launches before year-end,” said Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES. “ASTRA 1N will greatly enhance the flexibility of SES’ ASTRA satellite fleet at two key SES orbital slots over Europe and we would like to thank our longstanding partners Astrium and Arianespace for this mission success.”
Pictures of the launch will be made available on www.arianespace.com and via AFP, Reuters, EPA, AP, Kyodo News, in Europe via AFP, ANP, ANSA, APA, Belga, DPA, EFE, Keystone, Lusa, Pressebild, and in Japan via JIJI press.
Note to Editors:
The next SES launch is scheduled for early September, when an Ariane ECA booster will orbit the SES-2 spacecraft from the European Space Port in Kourou.
About SES
SES (Paris:SESG.pa)(LuxX:SESG) wholly owns the market-leading satellite operators SES ASTRA and SES WORLD SKIES, and participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. SES provides outstanding satellite communications solutions via a global fleet of 45 satellites. For further information: www.ses.com Ball Aerospace Ships Imaging Instrument for 2012 Landsat Mission
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has successfully completed pre-ship review for the Operational Land Imager (OLI) to fly aboard the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The imaging instrument is currently being prepared for shipment to Orbital Sciences Corporation, Gilbert, Ariz., where satellite integration will occur prior to a scheduled launch in December 2012.
Landsat satellites capture unique Earth surface data vital to agricultural, water management, disaster response, scientific and national security uses. “OLI provides the key sensor technology to allow continuation of Landsat Earth observations into a fourth decade,” said Ball Aerospace president and CEO David L. Taylor. “This continuation is essential to maintain seamless acquisition of moderate resolution imagery of the Earth from space that is not captured by other private or public sources.”
A multitude of scientific, commercial and governmental users rely on Landsat for moderate-resolution multispectral Earth observation data. OLI will capture images of nine spectral bands in the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared, helping scientists understand the impact of land use change. The OLI instrument provides 15-meter (49ft.) panchromatic and 30m multi-spectral Earth-imaging spatial-resolution capability, and includes a 185km swath allowing the entire globe to be imaged every 16 days.
The Landsat program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. For nearly 40 years, Landsat satellites have continuously and consistently collected images of Earth, creating an historical archive unmatched in quality, detail, coverage and length. LDCM will extend Landsat’s unparalleled global land surface observation record.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions of important national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. For more information visit www.ballaerospace.com.
Ball Corporation (NYSE:BL) is a supplier of high quality packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2010 sales of more than $7.6 billion. For the latest Ball news and for other company information, please visit http://www.ball.com.
