SES S.A. (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG) announces that the QuetzSat-1 satellite roared into space on board an ILS Proton Breeze M booster today at 00:32 am Baikonur time (20:32 CEST and 14:32 EDT on September 29th, 2011). After a 9-hour, 13-minute mission, the Breeze M upper stage of the Proton rocket successfully released the QuetzSat-1 satellite directly into geostationary transfer orbit.

QuetzSat-1 is an all Ku-band high-powered (20-kilowatt) communications broadcasting satellite with coverage of Mexico, USA, and Central America which is fully contracted to a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The spacecraft is based on Space Systems/Loral’s highly reliable 1300 satellite platform and carries 32 Ku-band transponders. QuetzSat-1 provides the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances and provides high power for advanced DTH television. It is designed to deliver service for 15 years or longer.

Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES declared: “The launch of QuetzSat-1 is the fourth successful SES satellite launch this year. We would like to thank Space Systems/Loral and ILS for a mission well executed according to specifications. And we look forward to providing EchoStar with a state-of-the-art new satellite to support the services they provide to their customers in the United States and Mexico.”

ILS President Frank McKenna said: “We are honored to partner with industry innovator SES in launching over one third of their operational fleet on ILS Proton over the past 15 years. QuetzSat-1 is a very important satellite to SES and their customer EchoStar and ILS has worked in partnership to make this launch a success. We thank the teams of SES, ILS, Khrunichev and Space Systems/Loral for ensuring mission success with the ILS Proton launch of QuetzSat-1 and we look forward to our upcoming launches with SES.”

Note to Editors:

The next SES launch is scheduled for the second half of November, when an ILS Proton booster will orbit the SES-4 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

About SES

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 49 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.

SES (Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.

Contacts

SES
Yves Feltes
Media Relations
Tel. +352 710 725 311
Yves.Feltes@ses.com