[SatNews] Imagine being a satellite and having to move to a new position in space...that takes two months.

SES today announced that the SES-3 satellite is being relocated from its former location over North America to Asia, an area experiencing great demand for state-of-the-art, reliable satellite capacity.

The SES-3 satellite is being relocated to 108.2 degrees East to provide coverage of the Middle East and South Asia regions, where SES experiences growing customer demand. The drift began in mid-December 2011 and the satellite arrived at its new orbital location on February 6, 2012.

SES-3 is a young satellite as it was just launched in July of 2011. Once reaching 108.2 degrees East, the planned coverage is capable of supporting such applications as video, voice, data, and end-to-end communications networks. With MAC-1 compliance and encrypted tracking, telemetry and control, the satellite is also well positioned to meet the secure communications needs of government customers.

The launch on an ILS Proton rocket took place from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Based on Orbital’s GEOStar-2™ bus, SES-3 is the first of two satellites built by Orbital for SES. SES-3 was co-launched with the KAZSAT-2 satellite.

Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES, stated: “With a fleet of 50 spacecraft in orbit around the globe, SES has the operational flexibility to swiftly respond to shifting customer demand by re-deploying in-orbit capacity without affecting existing services.

Tip Osterthaler, President and CEO of SES Government Solutions added, “The relocation of the SES-3 satellite is a result of continued engagement and dialogue with our customers and in response to the growing demand for bandwidth to support critical communications capabilities. This move is a confirmation of our commitment to provide affordable and vital capability for our government customers.”