A Proton rocket. Photo: ILS

[Via Satellite 01-15-2016] International Launch Services (ILS) is scheduled to launch the Eutelsat 9B satellite on Jan. 28 aboard a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Built by Airbus Defence and Space, the satellite also carries the first European Data Relay System node, EDRS-A, as a hosted payload.

Eutelsat 9B is a high-capacity Ku-band satellite for the 9 degrees east position that increases Eutelsat’s overall capacity to 50 physical transponders (47 equivalent 36Mz transponders). The satellite replaces Eutelsat 9A, which distributes more than 350 channels, of which 100 are in High Definition.

Eutelsat 9B will target high-growth broadcast markets through one pan-European footprint and four regional footprints serving Germany, Greece, Italy, and the Nordics with the Baltics and Ukraine. It is the first of three Eutelsat satellites to launch in 2016, with Eutelsat 65 West A and Eutelsat 117 West B to follow by year’s end.

EDRS-A, part of Airbus Defence and Space and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) new SpaceDataHighway, will significantly speed up the flow of information between low-orbit satellites and their ground stations, improving reaction time for a wide range of operations such as disaster monitoring, emergency operations and coastal and maritime surveillance. The payload carries a laser communications terminal and a Ka-band inter-satellite link that will retrieve high volumes of data sent from low orbit satellites as well as airborne platforms. It also carries a Ka-band antenna to transmit the data from geostationary orbit to EDRS ground stations.