Eutelsat 117 W B Launched

[lost_mesa]

Eutelsat 117 W B was launched by Space X this morning. It will be co-located with Eutelsat 117 W A at 117 degrees west.

Eutelsat 117 W B is a Ku Band only satellite that will provide some coverage into the southern tier of U.S. states. Footprint map is here:

http://www.eutelsat.com/files/contributed/news/media_library/brochures/EUTELSAT_SATELLITE_117WB.pdf

Eutelsat 117 W B uses an ion thrust engine to get to geostationary orbit, so that will take about another 6 months I believe.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the 1st stage landing didn't go so well.

 

[skysurfer]

with the new gen of all-electric satellites, I keep having this song in my head: "Waiting is the hardest part...." It's 7 months until in-orbit testing and in-service if all goes well.

 

[lost_mesa]

I first saw the Eutelsat 117 W B beacons at 117w around mid December. They now have a transponder lit up:

11480 H 34285 32 channels of encrypted programming and a EPG.

Link to the footprint is in the first post, put basically Mexico and the southern third of the U.S. I think all the transponders in this beam are from
11.45-11.70 GHz. Anything above 11.70 GHz is from Eutelsat 117 W A.

 

[iBoston]

Out of my footprint..

 

[skysurfer]

Eutelsat has announced that Eutelsat 117 West B is officially in service. It offers extended C-band and extended Ku-band transponders and a WAAS payload for the FAA.

 

[lost_mesa]

There are two C Band transponders between 3400-3700 MHz, apparently each with a bandwidth of 150 MHz. I've never seen a footprint map for them. I'd be surprised if there was ever any video that we could lock, on these two transponders.