Tim Furniss/LONDON
AEROSPATIALE has been awarded the contract to build the new-generation Eutelsat 3 series of communications satellites. Three satellites - plus four options - will eventually replace the Eutelsat 2 spacecraft operated by the 44-member European telecommunications satellite organisation.
The Eutelsat 3s will be based on the Spacebus 3000 platform manufactured at Aerospatiale's Cannes factory, with an industrial team which includes Daimler-Benz Aerospace.
The new spacecraft will be equipped with 24 Ku-band transponders. The first will be launched in 1998. Aerospatiale has built six Eutelsat 2s, including the Hot Bird 1. The Eutelsat 2F5 was lost in an Ariane failure in 1994. The Hot Birds 2 and 3 are being built by Matra Marconi Space.
Aerospatiale has also been awarded a contract from Nordiska Satellitaktiebolagat to build the Sirius 2 communications satellite, to be launched in July 1997.
The Sirius 2 Spacebus 3000 model will be equipped with 32 Ku-band transponders, half of which will be owned by GE Americom (Flight International, 12-18 July).
The French company won contracts earlier this year to build the Agila communications satellite system for the Philippines, and the Thaicom 3 satellite for Thailand.
July is proving to be a busy month for satellite builders. US company Hughes has received an order for its 44th HS-601 communications satellite bus. It will build the Astra 1H for Luxembourg's Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES).
The Astra 1H is the sixth HS-601 ordered by SES, at a total value of $2 billion. The new satellite, to be launched in 1998, will be an in-orbit spare co-located at 19.2¡E. The Astras are equipped with 28 Ku-band transponders.
The Astra 1H will be an HS-601 HP high-power model equipped with gallium-arsenide solar cells generating 8kW, and the Hughes xenon-ion propulsion system. The first HS-601HP will be the Astra 1G which will be launched in 1997. The Astra 1E will be launched this year, and the Astra 1F in 1996.
The USA's Direct Broadcasting Satellite company (DBSC) has raised funding to proceed with the manufacture of the first of two planned satellites to be launched in 1997. The DBSC contract has been held by Lockheed Martin Astro Space since 1990, and manufacture of the new A2100 series spacecraft bus is being accelerated.
Source: Flight International