Eutelsat and Arianespace announced Thursday they have signed a launch contract for the W2M satellite. The spacecraft will be carried into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket sometime in the second quarter of 2008 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana.
The contract continues a 22-year collaboration, the two companies said in a joint statement. Arianespace has orbited more than half of Eutelsat's constellation, and the contract represents the 274th won by Arianespace since its establishment in March 1980.
A new industrial consortium between EADS Astrium and ISRO will build the W2M, which will operate 26 transponders in Ku-band and up to 32 in all, depending on operational modes, for a designed operational lifetime of 15 years.
W2M is intended to provide additional security for customers, because it can be deployed at a number of orbital positions used by the W satellite series, particularly 10 degrees east longitude.
Like all Eutelsat W satellites, W2M is meant to provide a wide range of services, from television broadcasting to data networks to broadband. In addition to fixed-beam coverage over Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, W2M will carry one steerable beam that can be re-oriented in orbit according to market requirements – possibly toward Africa and central Asia.
