Astrium Wins Order for New 3B Satellite

Eutelsat has selected Astrium, Europe’s leading space company, to design and manufacture Eutelsat 3B, a new telecommunications satellite to provide video, data, Internet and telecom services across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South America, notably Brazil. The satellite will operate from Eutelsat 3°E location in geostationary orbit. Based on Astrium’s highly reliable Eurostar E3000 platform, Eutelsat 3B will operate 51 transponders in C, Ku and Ka-bands. Its ten antennas will enable Eutelsat to provide fixed widebeams and steerable spotbeams to regional and national markets with a scalable allocation of power and spectrum per beam in Ka band. François Auque, CEO of Astrium, said: “Eutelsat 3B will be the eighth Eurostar E3000 ordered by Eutelsat and the 20th satellite Astrium has designed and manufactured for one of the world’s leading and most innovative operators. “We are delighted that Eutelsat has once again demonstrated its confidence in Astrium’s ability to deliver a high-quality product and look forward to continuing to play a key role in the company’s future success.”