AMC-9 Offers Commercial Services from 85° West

Hybrid spacecraft becomes operational just 24 days after launch

July 2, 2003 – Princeton, NJ – SES AMERICOM, an SES GLOBAL company (Luxembourg & Frankfurt Stock Exchange: SESG), announced that AMERICOM-9, (AMC-9), the hybrid satellite launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 6, has been delivered to AMERICOM, tested, transitioned to 85 degrees West and is ready for service. Teams from Alcatel, the manufacturer of AMC-9, and AMERICOM worked continuously to ready the spacecraft for service in record time. AMC-9 becomes the 16th operational spacecraft in the AMERICOM fleet.

A diverse group of AMERICOM customers, including Clear Channel, several U.S. Government networks, educational broadcasters in Louisiana and Pennsylvania, The New York Times, Petrocom, and USA Today, will be transitioning their services from AMC-2 to the new spacecraft over the next few weeks. The successful transition of customer services to AMC-9 will then permit the move of AMC-2 from 85 degrees to 105 degrees West; the relocation of AMC-2 is expected to be completed in early August. 

Dean Olmstead, President & CEO, SES AMERICOM, said, “After a picture-perfect launch a little more than three weeks ago, AMC-9 is ready to deliver the highest quality service to current and future customers. I applaud the efforts of the AMERICOM Space Systems team for a job well done, and I thank the dozens of AMERICOM associates … in customer engineering, regulatory affairs, and terrestrial services … who have worked many long hours over the past several months to get AMC-9 and our customers ready for this day.” 

Built by Alcatel Space, AMC-9 is a hybrid spacecraft based on a Spacebus 3000B3 platform. The C-band payload features 24 – 36 MHz transponders with 20 watt SSPAs; the Ku-band payload features 24 – 36 MHz transponders with 110 watt TWTAs. The satellite will operate from 85 degrees West and provide service throughout CONUS plus Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. The design-life of the spacecraft is 15 years.

Launched in early 1997, AMC-2 is the second Lockheed Martin A2100 spacecraft in the AMERICOM fleet. The hybrid spacecraft features 24 – 36 MHz C-band transponders with adjustable 20 watt SSPAs; the Ku-band payload features 24 – 36 MHz transponders with 60 watt TWTAs. The design life of satellite is 15 years. 

About SES AMERICOM