Eutelsat Communications has announced that Thales Alenia Space has been commissioned to build the W3C satellite. Eutelsat will select the launcher for the satellite separately at a later stage.

The rapid order of W3C follows Eutelsat’s decision not to integrate the W2M satellite into its fleet following a major anomaly which occurred during its transfer from the location used for in-orbit tests to its operating position where its mission was to replace well in advance Eutelsat’s W2 satellite. As a result of this incident, Eutelsat decided that the W3B satellite, which is already one year into construction, will replace W2 from the middle of 2010, raising available capacity at 16 degrees East to 56 transponders from 27.

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