PARIS — Satellite fleet operator SES has selected Orbital Sciences to build the SES-8 commercial telecommunications satellite for launch in 2013 into SES’s growing 95 degrees-east slot over Asia, according to industry officials. The contract, which is expected to be announced in the coming days, has a value of around $100 million, officials said.
The SES-8 satellite will be co-located with SES’s larger NSS-6 spacecraft currently at that slot, which serves Indian direct-to-home television programmers and customers as far east as South Korea. NSS-6 was launched in late 2002. Officials said SES-8 will carry 24 Ku-band transponders and generate 5 kilowatts of power to its payload.
SES-8 will be the sixth satellite that Dulles, Va.-based Orbital has built for SES of Luxembourg.
Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski declined Feb. 16 to comment on the SES-8 situation, as did SES spokesman Yves Feltes.
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