[SatNews] The Company's next satellite is now safely at Baikonour, and there's a new deal for Middle East services...

SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) has announced that the SES-3 satellite has safely arrived at the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan onboard an Antonov cargo plane. The SES-3 spacecraft, manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will now be readied for launch onboard an ILS Proton Breeze M booster, scheduled for lift off on July 10, 2011. SES-3 is a hybrid C- and Ku-band satellite and will replace AMC-1 at 103 degrees West and provide comprehensive coverage of North America and the Caribbean. SES-3 is an integral part of SES' satellite replacement program over North America. The satellite's C-band payload will continue hosting blue-chip U.S. television networks broadcasting to more than 4,350 cable head-ends, while its Ku-band transponders will serve a range of enterprise customers with VSAT and broadband services. The cross-strapping capabilities from C- to Ku-band on the spacecraft will enable customers to further optimize their enterprise networks. SES-3 is based on Orbital's space-proven Star 2.4 platform, the largest and most powerful geostationary communications satellites Orbital builds. It carries 24 C-band transponders and 24 Ku-band transponders (36 MHz equivalents), generates approximately five kilowatts of payload power, and features a design life of 15 years.

Additionally SES S.A. and the Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technology, ictQATAR, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will find both entities exploring cooperative opportunities for the provision of satellite platforms, networks and services in the Middle East and beyond, including SES satellite capacity for the joint development of space assets and orbital positions as well as the associated ground segment. The cooperation between ictQATAR and SES is supported by the Qatari government and the Luxembourg government and was signed in the presence of Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani and the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker. The agreement was signed by Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, ictQATAR’s Secretary General and Mr. Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES.