At 18:53 local time on 9 July, dead on schedule, the SES-5 was successfully launched onboard a Proton-M booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

SES-5, formerly known as Sirius-5, is a commercial geostationary satellite built by the American satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral and operated by SES from Luxembourg. The 5984-Kg satellite, with an expected service life of 15 years, will initially occupy the position 85.2º west in the geostationary orbit, providing DTH (Direct-To-Home) and VSAT services in Europe and Africa. Among its most novel features are two huge 9-metre-diameter DARS antennae (Digital Audio Radio Service), making SES-5 one of the most powerful communication satellites ever launched.

SES-5 also features the L-band payload for the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). The EGNOS payload, which was developed for the European Commission (EC), will help verify, improve and report on the reliability and accuracy of navigation positioning signals in Europe.

hifly, GMV’s multi-satellite control and monitoring system, has been supporting SES-5 operations since 22 July, when the satellite reached its final orbital position. Before the start of commercial service hifly will be used to carry out all the in-orbit testing (IOT) and antenna mapping to check the integrity of the satellite’s antennae and payload. Along hifly, operations will be supported by the SES’ SPELL open source satellite procedure automation layer. Once the satellite has entered its routine service phase, hifly and SPELL will then take on responsibility for checking and maintaining the health of the satellite, detecting, identifying and helping to solve any anomalies and also helping the station-keeping system to offset flight perturbations.

GMV has been supplying hifly as the control and monitoring system of SES satellites since 2004, taking on responsibility for system-integration and engineering activities and also maintenance and support for final users. SES-5 is the eighth SES satellite to operate with hifly. Among these satellites there are four manufactured by EADS Astrium (ASTRA 2B, ASTRA 1M, ASTRA 1N, ASTRA 3B) and another four by Space Systems Loral (NSS-12, QuetzSat, SES-4 and SES-5).

In 2012 and 2013 SES is due to launch another four EADS Astrium satellites, once more trusting in hifly as the control and monitoring system. GMV is now concentrating its efforts on the development and deployment of the control system of the first of these satellites, ASTRA 2F, by the end of the year.