Eutelsat Brings Two Hotbird Satellites into Commercial Service

Eutelsat Hotbird Concept Photos

Eutelsat’s HOTBIRD 13F and HOTBIRD 13G satellites have now entered into full commercial service, the operator announced Sept. 13. Located at Eutelsat’s 13 degrees East flagship video neighborhood, the satellites are reinforcing and enhancing the broadcast quality of around nine hundred television channels into more than 160 million homes across Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. These new satellites are also bringing advanced features to 13 degrees East, including in-orbit redundancy ability and uplink signal protection and resilience.

The satellites were built by Airbus Defense and Space, and are based on the new generation Eurostar Neo telecommunications satellite platform, developed under an European Space Agency (ESA) partnership project with Airbus designed to foster innovation and competitiveness in the European space industry.

“Operating high-power orbital resources to bring video services to as many people as possible is one of the pillars of our business. With the entry into service of these two new satellites at a historic position for Eutelsat and a flagship position for Europe, North Africa and the MENA region, we are ensuring continued operational excellence for our clients. With two EGNOS payloads now hosted on our in-orbit resources, Eutelsat is also proud to complete the GNSS network for our European Union long-term customer and partner, the EUSPA, and to be part and parcel of the EU’s capacity to deliver reliable and secure space-based services,” Eva Berneke, Eutelsat Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.