Attachment STA Request

This document pretains to SAT-STA-20101129-00246 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Space Stations filing.

IBFS_SATSTA2010112900246_854104

Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of Application of ) ) SES AMERICOM, INC. ) File No. SAT-STA-___________ ) Call Sign S2445 For Special Temporary Authority to ) Operate AMC-1 Between 103.07° W.L. ) And 102.95° W.L. ) EXPEDITED ACTION REQUESTED APPLICATION OF SES AMERICOM, INC. SES Americom, Inc. (“SES Americom,” doing business as “SES WORLD SKIES”1) hereby respectfully requests special temporary authority for a period of up to thirty days – commencing no later than December 3, 2010 – to operate the hybrid C-band/Ku-band AMC-1 satellite at up to 0.02 degrees outside of the western edge of its assigned stationkeeping box of 103.0º W.L. +/- 0.05 degrees. In other words, SES WORLD SKIES is seeking authority to temporarily operate the AMC-1 satellite in an expanded stationkeeping box bounded by 103.07° W.L. on the west and 102.95° W.L. on the east. Grant of the requested authority will serve the public interest by enabling SES WORLD SKIES to provide continuity of service on AMC-1 by mitigating potential interference from the Galaxy 15 satellite (call sign S2387) – licensed to PanAmSat Licensee Corporation (“PanAmSat”) – as Galaxy 15 drifts past the nominal 103° W.L. orbital location with its payload active. 1 SES WORLD SKIES is the commercial brand name for the integrated operations of two indirect subsidiaries of SES S.A.: SES Americom and New Skies Satellites B.V. (effective January 1, 2009). The new brand name does not affect the underlying legal entities that hold Commission authorizations or U.S. market access rights.

AMC-1 is currently licensed to operate in both the conventional C-band (3700- 4200 MHz and 5925-6425 MHz) and the conventional Ku-band (11.7-12.2 GHz and 14.0- 14.5 GHz) at 103.0º W.L. with an east/west stationkeeping tolerance of +/- 0.05 degrees.2 Galaxy 15 is a C-band spacecraft formerly assigned to the 133.0º W.L. orbital location. As the Commission is aware, Galaxy 15 experienced a technical anomaly in early April and has since been drifting in an uncontrolled manner across the geostationary arc with its C-band payload still active. Galaxy 15 is expected to approach AMC-1 at the nominal 103° W.L. orbital location starting as early as December 3, 2010, and will likely cause harmful interference to C-band services on AMC-1 unless appropriate mitigation measures are taken. In consultation with its customers and with PanAmSat, SES WORLD SKIES will be implementing a number of measures to mitigate the potential for harmful interference from Galaxy 15, including re-routing AMC-1 uplink transmissions to antennas located outside of Galaxy 15’s predicted C-band footprint. As part of these mitigation measures, SES WORLD SKIES may need to drift AMC-1 outside of the western edge of its assigned stationkeeping box by up to 0.02 degrees, i.e., AMC-1 may need to operate as far west as 103.07° W.L. The AMC-1 satellite will remain within the eastern edge of its assigned stationkeeping box (102.95° W.L.). Accordingly, SES WORLD SKIES requests authority to temporarily operate AMC-1 within an expanded stationkeeping box of 103.07° W.L. on the west and 102.95° W.L. on the east for purposes of mitigating potential interference from Galaxy 15.3 Grant of the 2 See Applications of GTE Spacenet Corp. and GE American Communications, Inc., Order and Authorization, 9 FCC Rcd 1271 (Com. Car. Bur. 1994) (reassigning the GE-1 satellite from 85º W.L. to 103º W.L.). SES Americom was formerly known as GE American Communications, Inc., and AMC-1 was previously designated GE-1. 3 To the extent necessary, SES WORLD SKIES requests a waiver of 47 C.F.R. § 25.210(j), which requires U.S.-licensed geostationary satellites to be “maintained within 0.05° of their 2

requested authority will serve the public interest by enabling SES WORLD SKIES to maintain continuity of C-band service on the AMC-1 satellite as Galaxy 15 approaches the 103° W.L. orbital location. Such a small, temporary shift will have a negligible impact on Ku-band services on AMC-1 due to the wider beamwidths of the smaller antennas typically deployed in the Ku- band. Grant of the requested authority will not adversely affect other authorized operations. AMC-1 will not be located at the same orbital location as another satellite or at an orbital location that has an overlapping stationkeeping volume with another satellite. An excursion of a mere 0.02 degrees beyond the western edge of AMC-1’s existing stationkeeping box will also have no interference impact on adjacent satellites. The closest C-band satellite to the west of AMC-1 is AMC-18, which is operated by SES Americom’s subsidiary, SES Satellites (Gibraltar) Limited (“SES Gibraltar”). The operation of AMC-1 during the minor excursion has been coordinated with SES Gibraltar. The next closest satellites to the west are Anik F1 and Anik F1R, located more than four degrees away at 107.3° W.L. SES WORLD SKIES hereby certifies that no party to this application is subject to a denial of federal benefits pursuant to Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, 21 U.S.C. § 862. SES WORLD SKIES waives any claim to the use of any particular frequency or of the electromagnetic spectrum as against the regulatory power of the United States because of the previous use of the same, whether by license or otherwise, and requests an authorization in accordance with this application. assigned orbital longitude in the east/west direction, unless specifically authorized by the Commission to operate with a different longitudinal tolerance.” 3

For the foregoing reasons, SES WORLD SKIES seeks temporary authority for a period of up to 30 days beginning on December 3, 2010, to operate AMC-1 between 103.07° W.L. and 102.95° W.L. Respectfully submitted, SES AMERICOM, INC. By: /s/ Daniel C.H. Mah Of Counsel Daniel C. H. Mah Karis A. Hastings Regulatory Counsel Hogan Lovells US LLP SES Americom, Inc. 555 13th Street, N.W. Four Research Way Washington, D.C. 20004-1109 Princeton, NJ 08540 Tel: (202) 637-5600 Dated: November 29, 2010 4


Document Created: 2010-11-29 11:17:44
Document Modified: 2010-11-29 11:17:44
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