The Amazonas satellite has entered commercial operation with full service capability

Built by EADS Astrium for Hispasat, the Amazonas satellite was launched from Baikonur on 5 August 2004. It has been deployed at 61 degrees West on the geostationary orbit and thoroughly tested at this location. The communications performance of its payload operating in C and Ku-bands is fully satisfactory.

The Amazonas satellite carries 32 Ku-band and 19 C-band operating transponders, which commercially provide a global capacity of 63 equivalent transponders of 36 MHz. The technical configuration of Amazonas covers, with maximum power, the markets of Brazil and the rest of the American continent. Additionally, the Amazonas has transatlantic capacity allowing it to extend its coverage to Europe and North Africa, and complement the coverage of the current HISPASAT fleet of satellites, including the West coast of the United States.

Jacinto Garcia Palacios, CEO of Hispasat, said: ìAmazonas offers connectivity to three continents. It is the biggest satellite with the most complete range of services in Latin-America where it will provide critical communications for many remote areas. î

The Amazonas satellite is the third Eurostar E3000 satellite launched this year to enter commercial service. Antoine Bouvier, CEO of EADS Astrium, said: ìWe have demonstrated again the total commitment of EADS Astrium towards its customers to maximise the service availability and maintain the proven dependability of our products. Despite an incident detected after launch, Amazonas will be able to provide full capacity for more than ten years. The competence and dedication of our engineers and the quality of our technology give strong confidence for the continuation of Eurostar success.î

EADS Astrium is Europeís leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment.

EADS Astrium, wholly owned subsidiary of EADS SPACE, which is dedicated to providing civil and defense space systems. In 2003 EADS SPACE had a turnover of Ä2.4 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.
EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services.
In 2003, EADS generated revenues of Ä 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 100,000.