SES has awarded a contract to Airbus Defence and Space to build an SES-14 comunications satellite.

The new satellite will allow the company to serve various markets in the Americas and the North Atlantic.

SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell said: "The new spacecraft combines a large footprint with a powerful hybrid payload and significant spacecraft technology innovations.

"It will help us to capture important growth potential, address the needs of video and enterprise customers and support the development of next-generation video and next-generation data services."

"It will help us to capture important growth potential, address the needs of video and enterprise customers and support the development of next-generation video and next-generation data services."

The SES-14 will replace SES’s satellite NSS-806, and will operate at 47.5 / 48° W. It is scheduled for launch in late-2017.

Airbus space systems head François Auque said: "On SES-14, as on SES-12, the mass saving from electric propulsion enables us to combine two high-capacity missions, equivalent to two conventional satellites in one satellite."

The SES-14 satellite will offer C- and Ku-band wide beam coverage and Ku- and Ka-band high throughput satellite (HTS) coverage across the Americas and the North Atlantic.

The spacecraft will use an electric plasma propulsion system for orbit raising and in-orbit manoeuvres and a digital transparent processor (DTP) will increase the payload flexibility to provide customised bandwidth solutions.

The Ku-band wide beams on the SES-14 will support direct-to-home and direct-to-cable video and the existing VSAT services, while the Ku and Ka-band beams will provide high throughput capacity to facilitate data applications such as mobile backhaul, maritime and aeronautical services.

In a separate statement, SES said it has signed a contract with Boeing for SES-15 satellite, to serve North American markets. The SES-15 is planned to be launched in mid-2017.