Eutelsat Communications awarded a contract to build the W2M communication satellite to a partnership of EADS Astrium and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Eutelsat announced Feb. 1.
W2M will carry 26 Ku-band transponders and is intended to provide additional capacity for Eutelsat. The spacecraft will provide a range of services such as television broadcasting, data networks and broadband and will cover Europe, North Africa and the Middle East with fixed beams from its orbital slot at 10 degrees East and also carry a spotbeam that can provide service for Africa and Central Asia.
Under the contract, W2M will be delivered in 26 months and launch is scheduled for the second quarter of 2008.
This is the first order for the EADS-ISRO combination, which was formed in June to combine technologies from the two organizations to develop commercial communication satellites. Communication payloads developed by EADS will be placed aboard India’s Insat platforms to address the market for communications satellites with a launch mass between 2 tons and 3 tons and payload power of less than four kilowatts.
EADS Astrium is prime contractor in charge of overall program management and will design and build the communications payload. Antrix Corp., the commercial arm of ISRO, will supply the satellite bus, based on the I3K model, and integrate and test the spacecraft.
