SES Americom Retires Satcom C-4

PRINCETON, NJ, Mar. 2, 2007/Satnews Daily/ ― SES Americom, an SES company (Luxembourg and Euronext Paris stock exchanges: SESG), conducted its last operations on the Satcom C-4 satellite, safely de-orbiting the satellite more than 250 km beyond the geosynchronous orbital belt. The Series 3000 spacecraft was built by GE Astro Space, now Lockheed Martin, with a design-life of 12 years.

The satellite provided C-band services for 14.5 years reaching all 50 U.S. states, exceeding its expected service life by 20% due to efficient management of on-board fuel.

"Satcom C-4 was a valuable spacecraft in our fleet and provided consistently high quality services to some of our most important cable customers including American Movie Classics, Bravo, C-SPAN, Discovery Networks, iN Demand, Lifetime Entertainment, MTV Networks, Showtime and The Weather Channel," said Dany Harel, SES Americom senior vice president, Space Systems and Operations.

"It's a great reflection on the quality of the spacecraft as well as the quality of the team that operated it that we could depend on it for so long. We have one last Series 3000 spacecraft in our fleet, Satcom C-3, which has also exceeded our operational expectations,"

Satcom C-4, a C-band satellite, was a GE Astro Space 3000satellite. Launched in August, 1992 aboard a Delta 2 rocket out of Cape Canaveral, it served as one of two anchors of SES Americom's cable neighborhood. For most of its 14.5 years of outstanding service, C4 operated from 135 degrees W.L. and provided service to cable programmers.

In addition to improved coverage over its predecessor, each of C-4's twenty-four 36 MHz transponders featured 12 watt SSPAs, a significant increase in power over previous generation satellites. With the 2004 launch of the next generation satellites, AMC-10 and AMC-11, Satcom C-4 was redeployed to 85 degrees W.L. and then on to 105 degrees W.L. where it primarily delivered occasional use services.

The largest supplier of satellite services in the Americas, SES Americom was established in 1973 with its first satellite circuit for the U.S. Department of Defense. The company currently operates a fleet of 16 spacecraft in orbital positions predominantly providing service throughout the Americas.

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