EUTELSAT 5 West B reports potential array malfunction
EUTELSAT 5 West B reports potential array malfunction
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Editor
| 24 October 2019
In what could potentially be a serious blow to its mission to deploy TV and navigation services from the craft just over two weeks after launch, Eutelsat has revealed that it is investigating an incident on one of the two solar arrays on its EUTELSAT 5 West B satellite.
The craft was launched into orbit by International Launch Services using a Proton Breeze M rocket on 9 October and is designed to replace EUTELSAT 5 West A, assuring service continuity for over 300 TV channels broadcast from the 5° West position. Among other missions it will also host the GEO-3 payload of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) under a 15-year agreement signed in 2017 with the European GNSS Agency (GSA), and valued at €102 million.
Revenues generated in the 2018-19 financial year by EUTELSAT 5 WEST A, which EUTELSAT 5 WEST B is due to replace, amounted to around €30 million.
As of the morning of 24 October, Eutelsat said it was working to assess the potential impact on the performance of the satellite and will communicate on it as quickly as possible. The operator noted that EUTELSAT 5 West B is fully insured against the eventuality of loss by a launch-plus-one-year insurance.
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