Eutelsat 3B is an Airbus/Toulouse Eurostar 3000 satellite with C, Ku and Ka band comms payloads for the Paris-based company
Eutelsat S.A.
(Eutelsat was originally the European Telecom Satellite Organization, privatized in 2001; the Toulouse factory was formerly MATRA
Espace (1968-89), Matra Marconi Space (1989-2000) and Astrium-F (2000-2013)). On Jun 16 the satellite had reached a checkout location
at 1.7E, in a 35784 x 35788 km x 0.1 deg orbit.
51 C, Ku and Ka-band transponders to provide video, data, Internet and telecom services across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South
America. A Ku-band payload of up to 30 transponders will be connected to widebeam footprints over extended Europe and East Africa. A steerable beam will add further
flexibility, with coverage possible of South America or African regions. This capacity will address video contribution, corporate networks, data and telecom markets.
A C-band payload with 12 transponders connected to a pan-African beam will respond to continued high demand for capacity for telecom services. A Ka-band payload of
nine transponders connected to steerable beams that are in particular expected to cover Africa and South America will meet expanding connectivity requirements for
corporate networks and Internet access.
Mission details:
The Sea Launch project returned to flight with launch of Eutelsat 3B on May 26, 2014.
Zenit-2S No. SL37 and upper stage Blok DM-SL No. 36L made up the Zenit-3SL launch vehicle which took off from the Sea Launch Odyssey
platform in the Pacific at 154W 0N.