Artist’s rendition of Eutelsat 5 West B. Photo: Orbital ATK

[Via Satellite 10-11-2016] Eutelsat has signed a partnership with two satellite manufacturers, Orbital ATK in the U.S. and Airbus Defence and Space of France, to co-build Eutelsat 5 West B. Under the terms of the agreement, Orbital ATK will provide a GEOStar satellite platform, and Airbus Defence and Space will provide a communications payload consisting of 35 active Ku-band channels. This is the first time the two companies have partnered on satellite work.

With an estimated final launch mass of around three tons and a power of 5 kW, Eutelsat 5 West B will replace Eutelsat 5 West A, addressing predominantly French, Italian and Algerian broadcast markets from the 5 degrees west orbital slot. The satellite will feature switchable transponders to increase commercial flexibility. The companies will design, build and test the spacecraft at Orbital ATK’s satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia.

Eutelsat 5 West B will have an operational lifetime of more than 15 years, and is scheduled to launch in a stacked configuration with Orbital ATK’s first Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV 1) on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton rocket in 2018. Eutelsat expects significant savings will be achieved relative to the theoretical cost of replicating Eutelsat 5 West A, as the replacement is the first satellite to be procured within the framework of the company’s capex reduction strategy announced in June 2016. The company expects these savings to come from an improved match of the satellite’s coverage with specific customer requirements, thus lowering costs on power requirements and hardware.

Eutelsat is discontinuing the C-band mission of Eutelsat 5 West A, which served mainly data customers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The operator plans to enable service continuity by similar C-band capacity available on other Eutelsat resources.