Manual
Communications
Mission Description
Orbital built the NSS-9 C-band satellite for SES, and it is positioned at the orbital location of 183
degrees East Longitude, allowing NSS-5 to be re-deployed to a new orbital slot. NSS-9 carries 28
active C-band transponders and features three beams that can be interconnected on a transponder-by-
transponder basis: a global beam providing coverage of the entire earth visible from 183 degrees East
Longitude, a West Hemi beam (covering Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Korea and
the Pacic Islands) and an East Hemi beam (providing coverage and connectivity to the U.S., Hawaii
and Polynesia). The satellite will provide a minimum service life of 15 years.
The GEOStar
™
Advantage
Orbital’s highly successful Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) communications satellites are based on
the company’s GEOStar spacecraft platform, which is able to accommodate all types of commercial
communications payloads and is compatible with all major commercial launchers. The company’s
GEOStar product line includes the GEOStar-2 design, which is optimized for smaller satellite missions
that can support up to 5.0 kilowatts of payload power. Orbital has also developed the higher-power
GEOStar-3 spacecraft design, delivering the next increment of payload power for applications between
5.0 and 8.0 kilowatts, allowing Orbital to offer its innovative and reliable satellite design to the
medium-class of communications satellites.
Coverage:
Asia Pacic and United States
Mission:
C-band satellite service
Customer:
SES
FACTS AT A GLANCE
NSS-9 in Orbital's Dulles, Virginia satellite
manufacturing facility
NSS-9
C-band Commercial Communications Satellite
GEO