Eutelsat's W2M satellite is delivered by a European/Indian industrial consortium for Ariane 5's next launch

Eutelsat's W2M satellite is delivered by a European/Indian industrial consortium for Ariane 5's next launch (NSI News Source Info) October 22, 2008: The W2M satellite payload for Arianespace’s upcoming Ariane 5 mission touched down today in French Guiana, arriving in a brightly-colored shipping container that underscores the Indian origins of its spacecraft bus.

The W2M satellite is unloaded from an An-124 cargo jetliner at Cayenne’s Rochambeau International Airport in French Guiana. Its protective shipping container carries the colors of India’s flag: deep saffron at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The flag’s central symbol – representing a wheel of law – is replaced on the shipping container with a view of the Earth, which is circled by an orbiting telecommunications satellite.

W2M is one of two payloads that Arianespace will orbit for Europe’s Eutelsat aboard the next heavy-lift Ariane 5 – joining HOT BIRD™ 9 on the workhorse launcher’s sixth, and final, flight in 2008. The W2M platform will provide television and radio broadcasting across Europe, and it also carries one steerable beam that can be re-oriented in orbit according to market requirements. Weighing approximately 3,460 kg. at liftoff, the spacecraft will be positioned at an orbital slot of 16 deg. East following its Ariane 5 launch. W2M is the product of an alliance between Europe’s EADS Astrium and the ANTRIX commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). ANTRIX/ISRO supplied the satellite bus, and also was responsible the spacecraft’s integration and test before its shipment to French Guiana. EADS Astrium is prime contractor in charge of overall W2M program management, and the company also designed and built the communications payload. W2M will typically operate 26 transponders in Ku-band, with the capacity for up to 32 depending on operational modes. It has a designed operational lifetime of more than 15 years.