[Satellite TODAY 06-20-13] Eleven days after the successful launch of the SES 6 satellite on board an ILS Proton booster, SES announced that the ASTRA 2E satellite has safely arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft will now be processed for a July 21 launch also on board a Proton launch vehicle.

 

      Astrium built the ASTRA 2E for SES based on its Eurostar E3000 platform. The spacecraft will carry 60 Ku-band transponders, as well as three wideband Ka-band transponders. It will enable the delivery of next generation broadcast and broadband services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the neighborhood of 28.2 degrees east. ASTRA 2E will have a launch mass of 6 tons and a wingspan of 40 meters once its solar arrays are deployed in orbit, and a spacecraft power of 13kW at the end of its 15-year design lifetime.

 

     ASTRA 2E will be the seventh Eurostar satellite in the SES fleet, following the successful launch of SES 6 in June 2013 and ASTRA 2F in September 2012.