SES 3

About This Satellite

SES-3 is a communications spacecraft associated with North American television distribution. A documented example is QVC's June 2016 capacity agreement, which placed a substantial part of its regional programming on this satellite. This gives the catalog record a concrete purpose beyond its orbital parameters: transporting programme feeds to an audience through a distribution network.

The space link can be upstream of your television

SES described SES-3 as part of a cable-distribution neighbourhood alongside SES-1 and AMC-18. In that setting, a satellite feed can reach a distribution facility before the programme reaches the home over another network. Satellite television infrastructure is therefore broader than a dish connected directly to a household receiver.

A channel is not permanently attached to a NORAD ID

The QVC agreement is a dated example, not a verified present-day tuning guide. Programming, capacity assignments, and ground distribution can change while the same spacecraft remains in orbit. A moving marker cannot establish which channels are being carried or whether a commercial service is currently available.

Mission reference: SES: QVC distribution agreement on SES-3, June 2016. Editorial review: 2026-09-07.

The original deployment context

SES's third-quarter 2011 results list SES-3 as a July launch with C- and Ku-band capacity and an assigned position at 103 degrees west. These are deployment facts. They should be compared with dated operator information and the current orbital snapshot, rather than treated as an immutable longitude for the spacecraft's entire lifetime.

Reference: SES: Q3 2011 fleet additions and SES-3 assignment.

Why operators group satellites along the arc

The 2016 distribution announcement grouped three named spacecraft into one commercial neighbourhood. For this record, that means shared market context, not a single physical object: SES-3 retains its own catalog number, orbit, and payload. Comparing neighbouring satellites should preserve those identities even when they support related programming services.

Reference: SES: the three-spacecraft cable neighbourhood.

Reading this orbital snapshot

Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 35,776 km at perigee to 35,797 km at apogee, a difference of 21 km. The orbital period is about 1436.1 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00025 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.

Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.

Ground track is not sensor coverage

An inclination of 1.53 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 1.5 degrees north and south. This is a prograde orbit, moving in the same general direction as Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.

Is it fixed above one longitude?

The snapshot period is 1436.1 minutes. A sidereal day is about 1,436.07 minutes. Height alone does not establish a geostationary orbit: the period must match Earth rotation and the path must be circular and equatorial. This catalog uses a five-minute period tolerance for near-geosynchronous labels; near-geostationary additionally requires inclination at most 1 degree and eccentricity at most 0.01. These are browsing categories, not evidence of station-keeping or a fixed longitude.

Accuracy and missing information

The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.

Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 37748 · GCAT: S37748 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.

Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)

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