SES report that the ASTRA 2F satellite has successfully completed its in-orbit testing and is now fully operational and in commercial service at the orbital neighborhood of 28.2/28.5 degrees East.

The 52nd SES satellite was successfully launched board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on September 28, 2012.

ASTRA 2F was built by Astrium in Toulouse using a Eurostar E3000 platform.

The multi-mission satellite carries Ku-band and Ka-band payloads for the delivery of high-performance Direct-to-Home (DTH) and next generation broadband services in Europe and Africa.

Of the spacecraft's payload, 48 Ku-band transponders cover Europe and 12 Ku-band transponders are dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa, while 3 Ka-band transponders will allow SES Broadband Services to support download speeds of up to 20 Mbps.

ASTRA 2F is part of a larger fleet replacement and expansion programme at the 28.2/28.5 degrees East neighborhood, consisting of ASTRA 2E, 2F and 2G, that provides replacement and growth capacity for the UK and Ireland as well as for other services in and outside of Europe.

ASTRA 2E and ASTRA 2G, also under construction with Astrium, are scheduled for launch in 2013 and 2014 respectively.