Asia Broadcast Satellite has announced the Company has selected Space Systems/Loral to manufacture the ABS-2 spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in 2012 with Arianespace.

The satellite will be launched by an Ariane 5 ECA from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. ABS-2 will be the most powerful commercial satellite ever launched in the Asia Pacific region, with nearly 14 KW of payload power and as many as a total of 78 active C-, Ku- and Ka-band transponders across eight different beams. The ABS-2 spacecraft separated mass will be in excess of 6,000 Kg at launch and is designed for 15 years of operational life.

ABS-2 will be co-located with ABS-1 at 75 degrees East. The ABS-1 satellite is already one of the most successful satellites in Asia Pacific in terms of fill rate, with more than 14 years of fuel life remaining. ABS-2 will expand the success of ABS-1 by adding up to 78 transponders to the already existing 44 transponders, for a total of 122 active transponders at the 75 degrees East orbital location. ABS-2 was specifically designed for a wide range of services including DTH, Cable TV distribution, VSAT services, Data networks and Telecommunications services. ABS-2 will provide expansion capacity to existing ABS-1 customers, and will also act as in-orbit spare and provide backup for the ABS-1 transponders.