Boeing has announced that Intelsat has selected its 702MP satellite for Intelsat 29e, the first of Intelsat’s recently announced EpicNG next-generation high-performance system.
Intelsat 29e is scheduled to be launched in 2015 and will offer high-performance communications coverage spanning North and South America, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the North Atlantic aeronautical route between North America and Europe. The Intelsat EpicNG system is designed to address wireless and fixed telecommunications, enterprise, mobility, video and government applications that require broadband infrastructure. It will use multiple frequency bands, wide beams and spot beams with a high degree of flexibility and connectivity.
The announcement quoted Thierry Guillemin, Intelsat senior vice president and chief technical officer, citing the system for its higher throughput, strong economics and degree of control. He said its architecture combines multi-band frequency reuse with the benefits of backward and forward compatibility.
This will be Intelsat’s fourth satellite order with Boeing. The first order was for Intelsat 22, which is nearing six months of flawless operation. The second, Intelsat 21, recently was launched on a Sea Launch rocket and its now fully deployed and undergoing in-orbit testing. The third bird, Intelsat 27, is set for launch in the first quarter of 2013.
