Arianespace has already had five successful Ariane 5 launches so far this year. In 2012, Arianespace reached the key milestone of having over 50 successful launches of the Ariane 5 in a row. It achieved this with the successful launches of the Intelsat-20 (Intelsat) and Hylas-2 (Avanti Communications) satellites in August.

     The Eutelsat 21B satellite is a 40-transponder Ku-band satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space. It will enable Eutelsat to increase its capacity by 50 percent at 21.5 degrees East, where it will be located. The satellite will replace Eutelsat‘s Eutelsat 21A craft at a core neighborhood anchored for data, professional video and government services across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

     The Star One C3 satellite, which is being built by Orbital Sciences, will replace the Brasilsat B3 satellite, and be located at 75 degrees West. It will carry a hybrid payload. The satellite’s C-band payload will serve South America. The Ku-band payload will serve Brazil and other areas of South America. The spacecraft will carry 28 active C-band transponders for coverage of South America, and 16 x 72 MHz Ku-band transponders with six switchable channels between Brazil and the Andean coverage region.