Jane Edwards
Two satellites that Northrop Grumman built for satellite communications company SES launched Friday aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Northrop said Friday the SES-18 and SES-19 satellites are based on its GEOStar platform and are part of the efforts of SES to support the Federal Communications Commission’s C-band clearing program.
The FCC program seeks to clear 300 megahertz of C-band spectrum to facilitate the deployment of 5G services across the U.S. and migrate current services to the allocated 200 MHz of C-band spectrum.
SES-18 will replace the SES-3 C-band payload and is set to kick off operations in June, according to SES.
SES-19 will join the SES-22 spacecraft that launched in June 2022.
“We are now on the home stretch in protecting our customers’ broadcasts while freeing crucial 5G spectrum and we look forward to successfully concluding our work well before the FCC’s December 2023 accelerated clearing deadline,” SES CEO Steve Collar said in a statement.
