Astrium delivers Amazonas 2 satellite to launch site

Kourou, 31 August 2009 - Astrium has completed the construction and tests of Amazonas 2, a powerful satellite which will increase the capacity offered by Hispasat on their American position to meet growing market demand. The satellite was air shipped from Toulouse to the Kourou space centre where it arrived on 28 August. It will be launched aboard the next Ariane 5 ECA flight.


* Amazonas 2 will provide a full range of telecommunications services to Brazil, and North and South America

* It will be launched from Kourou aboard the next Ariane 5 ECA flight


Equipped with a payload of 64 transponders (54 active transponders in Ku-band and 10 in C-band), Amazonas-2 will provide a full range of telecommunications services to Brazil, and North and South America.

Evert Dudok, CEO of Astrium Satellites, said: “We are extremely pleased to support Hispasat, a long standing customer of Astrium, in their strategic expansion in the American markets.”



Amazonas 2 is the fourth satellite built by Astrium for Hispasat and is based on a Eurostar E3000 platform, the latest version of the highly successful Eurostar series.

The spacecraft has a launch mass of 5,450kg, a payload power of 12kW and a design lifetime of 15 years. Amazonas 2 will join in orbit the 16 E3000s already in service, and will be placed at the 61°W collocated with Amazonas 1 which has operated 51 transponders at that orbital location since 2004.