SES makes major investment in satellite control facilities

Satellite operator SES will invest €34 million in new satellite control facilities at its Betzdorf (Luxembourg) campus, along with an additional business centre.

The construction project will include a new technical building with associated office space to handle future needs for the operator’s expanding global satellite fleet of 44 satellites, and an extended antennae field. The new facilities will also host the Satellite Operations Centre for satellite infrastructure start-up O3b, whose Medium-Earth Orbit constellation of initially eight spacecraft will be controlled from Betzdorf from 2013.

Next to the new technical building, which will cover over 5,000 square metres, the extended antenna field will be capable of holding up to 40 large scale satellite communications dishes with the ability to cover an orbital arc over Europe stretching from 62° West to 70° East.

SES is also investing in a new 3,500 square metre business centre for developing SES divisions, and to host third-party activities on the Betzdorf Mediaport.

SES’s investment is boosted by what it calls a “significant investment” from the Luxembourg government and the Commune of Betzdorf, whose contributions will add 3.2 kilometres of roads, water, gas, electricity and vital communications lines to the Betzdorf site, and will be complemented by a new local power grid station and water tower.