[SatNews] Following an international call for tenders, Argentine satellite operator ARSAT has selected Arianespace to launch its Arsat-1 satellite. The Service & Solutions contract with Argentine operator ARSAT (Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales Sociedad Anonima) to orbit the Arsat-1 satellite by mid-2012 has now been signed.

Weighing about 2,900 kg. at launch, Arsat-1 will be placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Arsat-1 will be fitted with twelve 36 MHz, eight 54 MHz and four 72 MHz transponders, all in Ku-band. It will offer a wide range of telecommunications, data transmission, telephone and television services mainly across all of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. The satellite is being built by the Argentine company INVAP, with Astrium and Thales Alenia Space as leading equipment suppliers. Arsat-1 will be the second Argentine satellite launched by Arianespace, after Nahuel 1A orbited in 1997.