...EUTELSAT 70B, a new satellite for Eutelsat that will provide efficient and scalable connections between Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The satellite left the Astrium facilities in Toulouse, France, and is being transported by air to Long Beach, California, where it will be encapsulated in the Zenit-3SL fairing before the Sea Launch platform departs for the equatorial launch site in the Pacific Ocean. The EUTELSAT 70B satellite is based on Astrium’s highly reliable Eurostar E3000 product line, with a launch mass of 5,200kg and a spacecraft power of 12kW at the end of its 15 year design lifetime.

Sea Launch receives the launch vehicle for the EUTELSAT-70B mission.

Photo courtesy of Sea Launch.

Designed principally for telecom and professional video applications, EUTELSAT 70B will operate 48 active transponders in Ku-band at the 70.5 degrees East position. Its four high-performance fixed beams focus over a zone which covers: Europe, Africa, Central Asia and South-East Asia reaching as far as Australia. Through a high degree of on-board connectivity, clients will be able to use the beams either for regional coverage or to interconnect continents. EUTELSAT 70B is the 29th Eurostar E3000 satellite, and the seventh for Eutelsat fleet—12 other E3000s are currently at various stages of production.