The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), announced this morning that its BADR-6 satellite, the third of its fourth generation telecommunications satellite, was successfully boosted into orbit yesterday night from Europe’s spaceport in Kouru, French Guiana, by an Ariane 5-ECA rocket provided by Arianespace.

Khalid Balkeyour, President & CEO of Arabsat, announced that BADR-6 was placed into its correct orbital position at 22:23 GMT when the last stage of the separation sequence from Ariane 5 took place.

The launch was transmitted live from French Guiana to a ceremony held in Paris, France, organized by the launching and manufacturing companies (Arianespace, EADS-Astrium, ThalesAleniaSpace) and attended by a gathering of VIPs representing Arabsat owners, customers, partners and industry media from both the Arab and international world.

This successful launch is considered a very important milestone in Arabsat’s ambitious strategic plan to launch one new satellite per year until 2012.

Khalid Balkeyour added: “The superb joint effort and cooperation among the 3 launching and manufacturing companies was definitely behind this success, now enabling us to serve our business customers with the most advanced services and provide our more than 164 million viewers at 26 degrees East with an unrivalled level of reliability with in-orbit back-up over the Arab world and way beyond.”

Provided by AlcatelAleniaSpace, the BADR-6 payload has been integrated on an EADS-Astrium Satellites Eurostar E2000+ platform. Fitted with 20 transponders in Ku-band/BSS for Broadcasting Satellite Services, plus 24 in C-band for an extended range of Telecommunications services, BADR-6 will be co-located at Arabsat’s 26 degrees East video “Hot-Spot”, joining the rest of the BADR constellation of Arabsat's Direct-To-Home satellites where it will provide capacity for its core direct TV broadcasting customers, notably the extra capacity required to support the High-Definition TV take off in the Arab world, together with a much wider set of options for expanding its telephony and data transmissions services towards the African continent; BADR-6 will cover a stretched zone encompassing the entire Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), plus a large part of sub-Saharan Africa.

About ARABSAT:

With a 30-year heritage, Arabsat offers the Middle-East &  Africa world an unrivalled range of satellite communications services: Direct-to-Home TV & Radio, telephony, Internet, Broadband, VSATs, and numerous other state-of-the-art services meeting current and emerging demand. Arabsat now owns and operates 4 satellites at 2 orbital positions, 26° East and 30.5° East, currently carrying 340+ TV channels and keeps expanding its services in order to meet the evolving needs of its customers. With an audience of 164 Million viewers in the Arab world alone, its 26°E "Hot-Spot" has become the Arab video neighborhood of choice. Its aggressive fleet deployment of one new satellite per year from 2008 to 2012, including its brand new BADR-6, enables Arabsat to now deliver an unparalleled level of services in the MENA region --and far beyond, with ultimate flexibility and unmatched reliability thanks to an industry-unique true in-orbit back-up. With its fully integrated fleet of satellites operating cutting-edge technologies on most frequency bands over the whole Middle-East, Europe and Africa, Arabsat now allows its customers to deliver any type of content to audiences or end-users farther than ever.