[Satellite Today 04-05-09] Arabsat signed commercial deals with Thales Alenia Space, Astrium and Arianespace to manufacture and launch two new satellites, Arabsat 5C and Arabsat 6B, Arabsat announced Feb. 4.
    The Arabsat 5C satellite, scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2011, will be based on the Eurostar E3000 model and equipped with 26 C-band and 12 Ka-band transponders. The satellite will be located at  20 degrees East to provide a range of satellite communications services.
    The Arabsat 6C satellite, scheduled to be launched in second half of 2012, will be co-located with the rest of Arabsat’s Badr constellation of DTH satellites at 26 degrees East, extending in-orbit capacity for television services. Also a Eurostar E3000 model, Arabsat 6C will be equipped with 36 Ku-band transponders.
    Arianespace will launch both satellites from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
     “These contracts for manufacturing and launching two satellites are within the strategic plan of Arabsat that calls for launching a satellite every year up to 2012,” Khalid Balkheyour, president of Arabsat, said in a statment. “During the last two years, we successfully launched Badr-4 and Badr-6 and we are now getting ready to launch two more satellites, one at the end of this year and one at the beginning of next.”