SES has announced that the company has selected Arianespace to launch the powerful new hybrid communications satellite, SES-12, on board an Ariane 5 booster from the European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, during Q4 2017. This will be the 40th launch of an SES spacecraft on board an European Ariane launch vehicle.

The new satellite will expand SES's capabilities to provide direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting, VSAT, Mobility and High Throughput Satellite (HTS) data connectivity services in the fast growing Asia-Pacific region, including rapidly growing markets such as India and Indonesia.

The spacecraft will be positioned at the well-established SES orbital slot of 95 degrees East, providing incremental as well as replacement capacity with excellent view angles across the Asia-Pacific region.

SES-12 will replace SES's existing NSS-6 satellite and will be co-located with SES-8. Today, SES serves close to 20 million DTH households in India and Indochina from this orbital slot.

SES-12 is being built by Airbus Defence and Space based on the highly reliable Eurostar E3000 platform. The satellite is designed to operate for 15 years, with a payload comprised of 68 high-power physical Ku-band transponders and 8 physical Ka-band transponders. The spacecraft will be equipped with an electric plasma propulsion system for orbit raising and on-orbit manoeuvres.

The payload of the hybrid SES-12 satellite consists of two distinct but complementary missions: first, traditional wide beam coverage, and second, a high-powered Ku-band multi spot beam payload (HTS).

The traditional wide-beam mission consists of 54 (36 MHz equivalent) transponders that will provide state-of-the-art replacement and growth capacity for SES's existing DTH, Government and VSAT customers, allowing for a seamless transition from NSS-6 to SES-12. In addition, the design provides incremental growth capacity to support new DTH platforms and other services targeting the Asia-Pacific region.

The second mission consists of 70 Ku-band spot beams and 11 Ka-band spot beams delivering over 14 GHz for VSAT, Enterprise, Mobility and Government applications. This mission also includes a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) which provides anti-jamming capabilities as well as increased payload flexibility in order to provide customized bandwidth solutions to SES customers.