SES-14 will be the 53rd satellite launched by Arianespace for the operator SES (Société Européenne de Satellites), reaching back to Spacenet 1, orbited in May 1984.

SES, a leading global satellite operator, is the first company to operate a scalable GEO-MEO fleet with over 50 satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and 12 in medium Earth orbit (MEO). SES provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and Internet service providers, operators of fixed and mobile networks, governments and institutions and businesses from around the world.

The SES fleet also includes the ASTRA and O3b satellite systems.

SES-14 is one of the company’s three hybrid satellites, combining wide beams and high throughput (HTS) spot beams. Its hybrid payload offers both C- and Ku-band wide beams, plus Ku- and Ka-band HTS capacity.

Positioned at 47.5° West, SES-14 will fulfill two primary missions: its C-band wide beams are specifically designed for SES’s expanding cable neighborhood in Latin America, while its Ku-band HTS spot beams will provide expansion capacity to serve the dynamic aeronautical and maritime markets and other traffic-intensive applications, such as cellular backhaul or broadband delivery services.

The Ku-band wide beams on SES-14 will augment SES’s ability to serve direct-to-home customers and provide connectivity in the Americas and the North Atlantic. The satellite will provide replacement and expansion capacity for NSS-806.

SES-14 will feature a digital transparent processor (DTP) that will provide more flexibility to route the spot beams and also offer customized connectivity solutions that best fit customers’ needs.

The satellite is equipped with an electric propulsion system for orbital maneuvers and orbit raising duties.

SES-14 also carries the Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), a hosted payload for NASA, whose goal is to improve the understanding of the thermosphere-ionosphere. GOLD will transmit data from a geostationary orbit at a fast pace, to build up a full-disk view every half hour, providing detailed large-scale measurements of the response of the upper atmosphere to forcing from the Sun, the magnetosphere, and the lower atmosphere.

Arianespace currently has nine more SES satellites in its order book: SES-17, four O3b 13 – 16 satellites and four O3b 17-20 satellites.

SES-14 was built by Airbus Defence and Space in its plant in Toulouse, France, using the E3000 EOR platform. It is the 119th satellite from this manufacturer to be launched by Arianespace, and also is the second based on the Eurostar E3000 EOR platform.

Twenty other Airbus-built satellites are in Arianespace’s order book. Furthermore, Airbus is a partner in the construction of the 650 satellites in the OneWeb constellation, to be deployed by Arianespace.