Attachment STA Request SES-STA-20130109-00027

Attachment STA Request

This document pretains to SES-STA-20130109-00027 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Earth Station filing.

IBFS_SESSTA2013010900027_980756

Before the
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of Application by )
)
SES AMERICOM, INC. ) Call Sign E970336
)
For Special Temporary Authority to )
Communicate with QuetzSat-1 to Perform TT&C )
And Additional In-Orbit Testing at 77.05º W.L. )

REQUEST FOR SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY

By this application, SES Americom, Inc. (“SES Americom,” doing business as

“SES”) respectfully requests special temporary authority (“STA”) for a period of up to 60 days,

commencing no later than January 18, 2013, to permit SES to use its South Mountain, CA earth

station E970336 to perform additional in-orbit testing (“IOT”) of the QuetzSat-1 spacecraft

following its arrival at 77.05° W.L. and to continue performing TT&C for the satellite at that

location. SES Americom has already been granted a 60-day STA to use E970336 to relocate

QuetzSat-1 to 77.05° W.L. and to perform TT&C with that spacecraft at that location, 1 pending

the grant of an application to add QuetzSat-1 as a long-term point of communication to the

E970336 license. 2 The present STA application seeks authority to use E970336 to perform

additional IOT (as described herein) and to extend the existing TT&C authority.
3
QuetzSat-1 is a foreign-licensed Direct Broadcast Satellite (“DBS”) spacecraft.

The Commission previously authorized the use of the E970336 earth for initial operational

1
See File No. SES-STA-20121127-01046, grant-stamped Dec. 10, 2012.
2
See File No. SES-MFS-20121128-01044.
3
QuetzSat-1 is currently operating under a U.K. Outer Space Act license and will be
registered as a U.K. space object.

testing of QuetzSat-1 at 67.1º W.L. after it was successfully launched on September 29, 2011. 4

In late 2012, SES received instructions from its customer, EchoStar 77 Corporation

(“EchoStar”), to relocate the satellite to 77.05° W.L. to provide DBS service to the United States

and Mexico under a concession granted by Mexico to QuetzSat, S de R.L. de C.V., an affiliate of

SES. EchoStar (and its affiliates) have already been granted Commission authority to provide
5
DBS service to the United States using the QuetzSat-1 satellite at 77.05° W.L.

The additional IOT proposed here will verify the configuration of QuetzSat-1

described in EchoStar’s application to use the satellite to provide service in the United States at

77.05° W.L. The additional IOT will involve verifying the performance characteristics and

antenna patterns of this configuration, and include antenna mapping and gain transfer tests.

Some tests will involve transmitting saturating CW carriers to the satellite in the DBS bands for

short periods of time.

The proposed operations will not adversely affect adjacent satellite operators.

Coordination of the additional IOT is underway with adjacent DBS satellite operators. The

nearest operational DBS satellites are the Telesat Canada spacecraft – Nimiq 5 and Nimiq 4 – at

72.7° W.L. and 82° W.L., respectively. SES expects to be able to successfully coordinate the

proposed IOT with the operations of both satellites. SES notes that EchoStar (or an affiliate

thereof) is the sole customer on QuetzSat-1 and the sole customer of all of the DBS capacity on

Nimiq 5 at 72.7° W.L. Accordingly, SES expects coordination of IOT to be completed before

testing begins.
4
See File No. SES-STA-20110729-00873, grant-stamped Sept. 12, 2011 (“E970336 STA”).
The authority was extended in File No. SES-STA-20110928-01151, grant-stamped Oct. 24,
2011.
5
See File No. SES-MFS-20110707-00793, Call Sign E050196, granted Nov. 10, 2011.

2

As with the original E970336 STA, SES will accept interference from any

regularly authorized network and will terminate operations if SES is notified that such a network

is experiencing harmful interference. 6

Grant of this request is in the public interest. The additional QuetzSat-1 testing

will verify the configuration of QuetzSat-1 at 77.05° W.L. on which U.S. market access was

previously granted. In addition, the requested extension of TT&C authority will facilitate the

continued safe operation of QuetzSat-1 pending the addition of QuetzSat-1 to the E970336

license as a point of communication.

SES 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.

For the foregoing reasons, SES respectfully requests special temporary authority

to communicate with QuetzSat-1 for a period of up to 60 days in order to perform additional in-

orbit testing and conduct TT&C as described herein.

Respectfully submitted,

SES AMERICOM, INC.

By: /s/ Daniel C.H. Mah

Of Counsel Daniel C.H. Mah
Karis A. Hastings Regulatory Counsel
SatCom Law LLC SES Americom, Inc.
1317 F Street, N.W., Suite 400 Four Research Way
Washington, D.C. 20004 Princeton, NJ 08540
Tel: (202) 599-0975

Dated: January 9, 2012

6
See id.

3

Document Created: 2013-01-09 15:18:42
Document Modified: 2013-01-09 15:18:42

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