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EADS Astrium-ISRO Alliance Seals First Contract with Eutelsat for W2M Satellite |
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NEW DELHI, Feb. 22, 2006/Satnews Daily/ — EADS Astrium and Antrix, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), have signed a contract to provide a communication satellite for the international market.
Under the alliance, EADS Astrium and Antrix/ISRO, which builds on the expertise of both Indian and European companies, is to jointly offer communications satellites in the market segment around 4kW of payload power and with a launch mass of 2 to 3 tons. The companies said this cooperation combining Indian platforms along with European payloads is designed to offer optimal, flexible and cost effective solutions to telecommunications operators.
The alliance has already nabbed its first contract after it was awarded the W2M satellite contract by Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL). This is a breakthrough for the partnership, the companies said, after winning their first commercial export contract.
Under the W2M contract, EADS Astrium will serve as prime contractor in charge of the overall program management and will build the communications payload. Antrix/ISRO will build the satellite bus, based on the I-3K model, integrate and test the spacecraft. ISRO will also be in charge of early in-orbit operations.
W2M will be delivered to Eutelsat in 26 months for launch in the second quarter of 2008. W2M will operate typically 26 transponders in Ku-band and up to 32 depending on operational modes, for a designed operational lifetime of 15 years, according to EADS Astrium.
It added W2M will display great flexibility to operate a wide range of services from television broadcasting to data networks and broadband. It will have a fixed beam coverage for Europe, North Africa and Middle East and a steerable beam which can be re-oriented in orbit according to market requirements, notably towards Africa and central Asia.
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