Hugo Nahuys, Arsat's Manager of Space Services, confirmed this yesterday during the second day of Satellite Map Day 2024. With a 53% progress level, the project is currently in the design phase, which will be followed by manufacturing, integration and testing.

"While we work on the SG-1, we have a transitional system. We have leased all the available capacity of the SES-17 over Argentina and neighboring countries. This satellite has full coverage over Argentina, approximately 7 Gbps. Its commercialization was so successful that we are running out of capacity. The fact is that the capacities of GEO satellites are quickly being exhausted", he commented.

Regarding the availability of the Arsat 1 and 2 satellites -with 10 and 9 years of operational life in orbit, respectively-, he noted that their end of life is expected in 2029 and 2030, but there is enough fuel margin to extend this to 2032.