The HOT BIRD 7A broadcasting satellite, built by Alcatel Alenia Space for Eutelsat Communications, arrived last Thursday night at the Kourou launch site in French Guiana. The satellite's scheduled launch date is 21 February 2006 on-board an Ariane 5 ECA rocket.
HOT BIRD 7A will be positioned at 13 degrees East, Eutelsat's prime neighbourhood for television and radio broadcasting to satellite and cable homes.
Equipped with 38 Ku-band transponders, its dual mission is to replace existing capacity at 13 degrees East and, in conjunction with HOT BIRD 8 which is due for launch in second quarter, to provide complete in-orbit redundancy at the HOT BIRD location. Eutelsat's HOT BIRD neighbourhood today hosts 850 television channels and 550 radio stations, serving 110 million homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
With Alcatel Alenia Space as prime contractor (platform and payload), HOT BIRD 7A continues a long history of industrial cooperation with Eutelsat that over almost 20 years has seen orders placed for 16 satellites*.
Based on Alcatel Alenia Space's Spacebus 3000B3 platform, HOT BIRD 7A has a launch mass of more than 4 tonnes and its solar panels will deliver 10 kW of electrical power. The satellite's lifetime is 15 years.
* 5 EUTELSAT II (F1 to F5), HOT BIRD 1, HOT BIRD 6, HOT BIRD 7A, W2, W3, W4, W5, SESAT 1 (with NPO-PM) EUROBIRD 1, ATLANTIC BIRD 2, ATLANTIC BIRD 3.
