A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket has placed in orbit the final two of the three C-band satellites commissioned by Luxembourg satellite operator SES in order to free up spectrum for the roll-out of 5G mobile telecommunication services in the US.
Both C-band satellites will enable SES to continue delivering TV and radio to millions of American homes and provide other critical network communications services.
“The successful launch of SES-20 and SES-21 will allow us to support our customers in delivering high-quality sports and entertainment to tens of millions of US households while delivering on our promise to repurpose spectrum to enable U.S. leadership in 5G,” said Steve Collar, CEO of SES.
The second phase of our U.S. C-band clearing activities is fully on track and we are grateful for the hard work of our partners at Boeing and ULA.
SES-20 and SES-21 are the second and third C-band satellites that SES has launched as part of its effort to free up the lower 300 MHz of C-band spectrum across the U.S. by December 2023 while maintaining uninterrupted services. SES-22 was the first C-band satellite to be launched on June 29, 2022.