Eutelsat 5 West B satellite, which was launched in October 2019 with one of its solar arrays non-functioning, has been saved.

Eutelsat has confirmed the problem but says about 45 per cent of the satellite’s planned capacity can still be used. The satellite is insured for €173 million. The satellite will come into service later in January and is expected to serve for its designed 15-year life-time in orbit.

Eutelsat said: “A number of mitigation actions aimed at assuring service continuity will be implemented, following the end of life in stable orbit of Eutelsat 5 West A, for the largest possible number of customers E-5 West B is fully insured against the eventuality of a partial or total loss by a launch-plus-one-year insurance for up to 173 million euros.”

“The partial non-availability of Eutelsat 5 West B will reduce Financial Year 2019-20 revenues for the Operating Verticals by 5 to 10 million euros. The one-off cost of mitigation, mostly related to the repointing of ground antennae will be between 0 and 10 million euros. In consequence, Eutelsat’s revenue objective for Financial Year 2019-20 is mechanically revised to between €1,270 million and €1,315 million for the Operating Verticals,” added the company.

Meanwhile, Eutelsat’s sophisticated Konnect satellite was successfully launched from French Guiana into geosynchronous transfer orbit at 9.05pm GMT on the evening on January 16th.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Virgin Galactic in stock split
2. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
3. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
4. Optimism under threat at SES
5. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
6. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
7. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
8. IRIS2 already in trouble?
9. Intelsat contemplates next steps

Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite