SES Americom Satellite Arrives in French Guiana For December Launch

The Americom-18 (AMC-18) satellite has been delivered to Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for its Dec. 8 Ariane-5 ECA launch, SES Americom announced Nov. 15.

AMC-18, an all C-band satellite, is designed to offer full North American cable-programming coverage to all 50 U.S. states, Caribbean and Mexico. It will be located at 105 degrees West longitude, joining AMC-1 at 103 degrees West and AMC-4 at 101 degrees West.

Working with its customers and the cable industry, Americom has installed triple-feed antennas to cable head-ends serving half of all cable households to facilitate their reception of cable programming from all three spacecraft.

AMC-18, built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, will be operated and marketed by SES Americom. The satellite is scheduled for launch by Arianespace on its Ariane-5 ECA mission with its co-passenger WildBlue-1.