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Amazonas satellite shipped to Baikonur: 3rd Eurostar E3000 delivered by EADS Astrium in 4 months

The satellite has been shipped to the launch site of Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The launch is planned in the last week of July on a Proton M Breeze M launch vehicle. With 51 transponders, Amazonas satellite will provide a full range of telecommunications services to Brazil, North and South America, and a transatlantic link for Europe.

Amsterdam, Toulouse, Friedrichshafen, Stevenage, 29 June 2004

The Amazonas Latin American satellite will operate in geostationary orbit, at the 61°W orbital position over the Amazon basin, and will provide both fixed and broadcast communications services through 32 simultaneous operational transponders in Ku-band and 19 simultaneous operational transponders in C-band, over a 15-year mission lifetime. The services offered will include TV broadcasting, business services including VSAT and data broadcasting.

Amazonas is the third Eurostar E3000 to be shipped to the launch pad in only four months. It fulfills Hispasat and Hispamar time to market expectations for Latin America.

Antoine Bouvier, CEO of EADS Astrium said: “Hispasat is a long standing and important customer to EADS Astrium. We have built their first-generation satellites, an important milestone in the development of our Eurostar product line on the world market. Now we deliver their most powerful satellite on schedule to meet their needs and support their expansion in Brazil and Latin American market. The co-operation between Hispasat, Hispamar and EADS Astrium has been excellent on the Amazonas programme.”

The spacecraft will have a launch mass of 4.5 tons, a solar array span of 35 metres once deployed in orbit, and a spacecraft power of more than 9.5 kW at end of life.

EADS Astrium, as prime contractor, has designed and built the spacecraft and supplied both the payload and the platform. EADS CASA has been a major partner of EADS Astrium in this programme, and other Spanish companies have supplied a significant part of the spacecraft equipment and technology.

Amazonas is based on the E3000 version of the highly successful Eurostar communications satellite family that has been ordered by most of the world’s major satellite operators. It is a full chemical propulsion spacecraft equipped with Lithium-ion batteries. Thirty-eight Eurostar spacecraft have been ordered to date, of which twenty-four have already been launched and have proven highly reliable in operational service.
EADS Astrium is Europe’s leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment.
EADS Astrium is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS SPACE, which is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems. In 2003 EADS SPACE had a turnover of €2.4 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2003, EADS generated revenues of € 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 100,000.

AMAZONAS technical characteristics

Spacecraft:	E3000
Main body dimensions:
Height:	5.8 m
Length:	2.4 m
Width:	2.9 m
Solar Array Span deployed:	35 m
Launch mass:	4500 kg
DC Power / End of life:	9500W
Design lifetime:	15 years
Orbital position:	61° West
Payload
Frequency bands:	C and Ku bands
Number of transponders:	19 transponders in C- band 32 transponders in Ku- band
Coverage:	- Brazil - North America, from North of USA to Panama, including Mexico and the Caribbean Islands - Central and South America, from Venezuela and Colombia to the South of Argentina and Chile - South West Europe (Ku-band only)
Channel switchability	High level of flexibility for channel allocation between North and South America, Brazil and Europe.

 

Press contact:
Rémi ROLAND
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 34 88 35 78

Alistair SCOTT
EADS SPACE (UK)
Tel.: +44 (0) 1438 77 3698

Mathias PIKELJ
EADS SPACE (GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 7545 8 91 23