Double blow for Eutelsat as Hot Bird is winged

摘要

Eutelsat, the Paris-based satellite operator, was this week reeling from a double blow after two of its satellites suffered in-orbit technical problems. The second event, which on Monday took a satellite providing broadcast and data services to eastern Europe and Africa out of service for a few hours, was relatively minor. But an incident last Friday has had a more serious and permanent impact, with up to half the capacity on the Hot Bird 3 satellite rendered inoperable. An "anomaly" occurring at the end of a solar eclipse period caused substantial damage to one of the two solar-array panels and a loss of satellite power. Eutelsat said that the 20-transponder satellite would now "operate a lower number of transponders than foreseen".