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The Florida Today article On second flight, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch 'brute' of a satellite from Cape describes the upcoming SpaceX launch of SES-12. Next to this tiny image of (presumably) SES-12 is the caption:

enter image description here

SES-12 is the largest and most powerful all-electric propulsion communications satellite ever produced, according to manufacturer Airbus Defense and Space. The satellite's launch from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is targeted for 12:29 a.m. Friday, June 1.

The main text of the article also says:

According to Airbus, the satellite is the biggest and most powerful yet to rely entirely on electric propulsion to reach and hold its final orbit high over the equator.

Question: Are they talking about the power output of the solar array, or total RF power transmitted, or power used for the all-electric propulsion, or even the total thrust available ("powerful thrusters")?

Related (though not all-electric propulsion): ViaSat's 18 kW solar array - largest ever for a commercial telecom satellite?

uhoh
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    http://www.airbus.com/space/telecommunications-satellites/electric-propulsion-satellites.html – BowlOfRed May 31 '18 at 06:38
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    While it may be the most powerful all-electric-propulsion sat by solar array output or by transmission power, the text is almost certainly referring to power measured by marketing budget. – Russell Borogove May 31 '18 at 06:44
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    https://www.ses.com/newsroom/ses-12-elevating-experiences-today " payload of 6 wide beams and 72 high throughput user spot beams". 72 is huge number.. – Heopps May 31 '18 at 06:54
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    I think the main rival is Vaisat-1 satellite (launched in 2011). It also have 72 Ka-band spot beams, and 140 Gbit/s total capacity. – Heopps May 31 '18 at 07:38
  • There's nothing in the text quoted to say the "most powerful" claim is related to the propulsion system. –  Feb 26 '19 at 08:52
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    Hard to tell for this particular claim, but in general when talking about GEO satellite power, it refers to total RF power transmitted. – Carlos N Feb 26 '19 at 23:20
  • @CarlosN if you can put together a few examples of that, it could be posted as an answer (possibly including examples in comments above). The question has been around for close to a year now, so that might be helpful. Thanks! – uhoh Feb 26 '19 at 23:30

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