On July 10, 1912, the Dutch communications satellite SES-5 was launched into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Russian Proton-M launch vehicle. Its launch was delayed several times: either due to the unavailability of the launch vehicle, or due to technical malfunctions of the satellite itself.
SES-5 is owned by the Dutch satellite operator SES World Skies. The satellite was created to provide communications services to countries in Europe, the Baltic States and Africa. It weighs more than 6000 kg and is designed for a term of operation of at least 15 years.
Devices that send a signal in response to a received signal are called transponders. They are used to form a satellite communication channel, a friend-or-foe identification system and determine the distance to an object in sonar.
The SES-5 satellite has 36 Ku-band transponders and 24 C-band transponders. Ku-band lies in the range of centimeter radio waves with a length of 1.67 to 2.5 cm (12-18 GHz). These frequencies are given to paid satellite television (DTH) with a broadcast area in the Baltic countries, Scandinavia and Africa.
The wavelength range from 3.75 to 7.5 cm is called the C-band. In the Americas, it is this range that is essential for satellite television. At SES-5, these frequencies will be used for GSM communications, maritime communications and video transmission.
In addition, the Dutch satellite performs some of the tasks of EGNOS, the European geostationary navigation coverage service. The service was created to improve the quality of GPS, Galileo and GLONASS systems. It consists of a main station that collects information from GPS, Galileo and GLONASS satellites, a network of ground-based relay stations and EGNOS geostationary satellites, which transmit information to GPS receivers.
The commissioning of the SES-5 geostationary telecommunications satellite will improve the quality of communication and the reliability of information transmission. The coverage area of the TV signal and GPS signals will increase. True, since there are no EGNOS ground stations on the territory of Russia, all favorable changes will be noticed mainly by residents of its western part.
