Scott Nicholas
Eutelsat Communications has selected Orbital ATK and Airbus to develop a new satellite on the 5° West orbital position that will cater to video markets in Europe and North Africa.
Eutelsat said Tuesday Airbus will construct the satellite’s payload and Orbital ATK will manufacture the platform of the EUTELSAT 5 West B which will be launched in 2018 as a replacement to the EUTELSAT 5 West A digital infrastructure.
EUTELSAT 5 West B will work to provide business continuity via a Ku-band payload of 35 equivalent 36 MHz transponders connected to three service areas.
The EUTELSAT 5 West AÂ will be discontinued and succeeded by similar C-band capacity from other Eutelsat resources to help optimize capacity utilization rate across the company’s fleet, the company said.
