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SES-2 SATELLITE LAUNCH PREPARATIONS KICK OFF IN KOUROU

CHIRP hosted payload on board

Luxembourg, August 9th, 2011 www.ses.com

SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announces that the SES-2 satellite has safely arrived at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The SES-2 spacecraft, manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will now be readied for launch on board an Ariane 5 ECA booster, scheduled for lift-off early September, 2011.

SES-2 is a hybrid C- and Ku-band satellite which will replace SES' AMC-3 spacecraft at 87 degrees West and provide coverage of North America and the Caribbean. The satellite will continue distributing advanced digital media from one of the world's largest TV neighborhoods, as well as supporting a variety of enterprise, VSAT and government customers. The satellite's easterly location with its excellent coverage of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean was specifically designed to provide communications links to offshore platforms for customers in the oil and gas and maritime markets. The cross-strapping capabilities from C- to Ku-band on the spacecraft will enable customers to further optimize their enterprise networks.

SES-2 is based on Orbital's space-proven Star 2.4 platform, the largest and most powerful geostationary communications satellites Orbital builds. It carries 24 C-Band transponders and 24 Ku-Band transponders (36 MHz equivalents), generates approximately five kilowatts of payload power, and features a design life of 15 years.

The state-of-the-art spacecraft will also carry the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) sensor specially developed for the US government for testing purposes.

States Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES: "SES-2 will provide seamless replacement capacity at the important orbital position of 87 degrees West, ensuring a number of our North American customers a smooth continuation of their operations for years to come. Fitted with CHIRP, SES' first hosted payload, SES-2 is also an important demonstration of how hosting government special purpose payloads on commercial satellites can provide cost effective means for experimenting with new technologies. We look forward to another Ariane 5 success as the combined teams of Arianespace, Orbital and SES prepare SES-2 for launch over the next few weeks."

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Arianespace to launch satellites for DirecTV

15.33 Europe/London, September 13, 2011 By Robert Briel

Arianespace announced today that it will launch two satellites for DirecTV and has the option of launching another two satellites for the US-based direct-to-home TV platform.

All four satellites will weigh in at over 6 metric tons and will be a part of a fleet expansion and replenishment programme. The new satellites will strengthen DirecTV’s DTH digital entertainment services across the United States and, if the options are exercised, Latin America by increasing HD channel capacity, adding more 3D channels, and greatly expanding the DirecTV Cinema movies experience.

The satellites will be launched on Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana in 2014. DirecTV-14 is currently being built by Space Systems LORAL of California. The DirecTV-15 satellite is in the final stages of contract award.

“DirecTV is pleased to be back with Arianespace and its high performance and highly reliable Ariane-5 launch vehicle services,” said Romulo Pontual, CTO of DirecTV. “We have the utmost confidence in this system’s design and in the depth of the organization behind this rocket. We have a long standing relationship with Arianespace and we are happy to build upon that foundation of success.”

“It is a matter of great pride that DirecTV has entrusted us with as many as four of their satellites,” said Jean-Yves Le Gall, CEO of Arianespace. “An order of this magnitude confirms Arianespace’s reputation as offering the most reliable launch service and solutions in the marketplace. We are excited to build upon a relationship that goes back nearly two decades, to the dawn of the direct-to-home revolution, when Arianespace launched DBS-1 for DirecTV.”