Luxembourg – SES has successfully launched its new ASTRA 2F satellite on Friday, September 28, on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. This is SES’ 36th successful launch on Ariane and its 52nd satellite in orbit.

Built by Astrium and carrying Ku- and Ka-band payloads for the delivery of high-performance DTH and next generation broadband services, ASTRA 2F is the first of a three-satellite investment programme (ASTRA 2E, 2F and 2G) that provides replacement and growth capacity for the UK and Ireland at the 28.2°E/28.5°E neighbourhood. By October next year, the new satellites in this neighbourhood will also use additional frequency spectrum for which the right of use was granted to SES by Media Broadcast pursuant to an agreement entered into in 2005.

“ASTRA 2F will provide seamless replacement capacity for our UK customers like BSkyB, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and will allow us to operate additional capacity at 28.2/28.5 degrees East on SES satellites,” said Romain Bausch, CEO of SES. “This orbital neighbourhood today serves close to 13 million DTH homes in the UK and Ireland.”