| Chris Forrester and Pascale Paoli Lebailly, on 07-10-2008 |
 Eutelsat has booked two satellites for launch aboard an upcoming Arianespace rocket. A giant Ariane 5 craft will carry Hot Bird 9 and W2M satellites into orbit at the end of November.
Called Flight 186, the mission will be the sixth Ariane 5 launch in 2008.
Originally the rocket was scheduled for an October launch, but with a
somewhat different client manifest. As well as Hot Bird 9, SES New Skies was
originally planned to be aboard with its NSS-9 craft (being built by Orbital Sciences). But NSS-9 has
been delayed and will now be launched probably in February next year (and perhaps with Astrium's Hot Bird 10 as a co-passenger).
The vacancy allowed Eutelsat to book the entire rocket capacity. The
new manifest includes Hot Bird 9, built by EADS Astrium, which has been
at Kourou since Sept 16.
Designed for consumer broadcasting to satellite and cable homes across
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, “the high-power Ku-band Hot
Bird 9 satellite, equipped with 64 transponders, will join Eutelsat’s
13 degrees East position to increase in-orbit sparing at the Group’s
premium video neighbourhood,” Eutelsat announced.
W2M, built by Astrium and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
and according to Arianespace, will be shipped from its manufacturing
facility Bangalore, India, to Kourou by mid-October.
W2M will be positioned at Eutelsat's 16 degrees East position and
looking at central Europe and the Indian Ocean islands, says Eutelsat.
© Rapid TV News 2008
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