ICAO Journal

No. 12

The first model of Eutelsat 11, shown here in an artist's conception, is in final systems integration at Aerospatiale's Cannes centre. The Eutelsat organization, which provides telephone, television and data transmission services to 26 European countries has already ordered 5 of these satellites for launches starting in 1990. Aeronautical communications relay will be among the various services provided, and could include passenger air-ground telecommunications. Increased traffic to be sent over the system led to Eutelsat's decision to order the new, higher performance generation of satellites. Eutelsat 11 has twice the capacity of its predecessor ECS and is expected to provide better coverage of its service area which stretches from Iceland to Turkey. Eutelsat 11 offers significant operational flexibility (beams can be re-configured in flight, for example) and high transmission power (50 watts). Eutelsat II is a Spacebus 100-type spacecraft with 3-axis stabilization and a power supply of 3 kW. Its mass in geostationary orbit is 985 kg. Eutelsat II satellites are built by a team led by Aerospatiale: Aeritalia (Italy), Alcatel-Espace (France), CASA (Spain), Ericsson Radio Systèmes (Sweden), ETCA (Belgium), Marconi Space Systems (Great Britain), MBB (Germany) and Crouzet (France).