HISPASAT'S Amazonas 5 satellite reaches its orbital position and becomes operational

November 2, 2017

Following the success of the testing phase in space, the satellite is now in its final 61º West orbital position and is beginning to offer its first services.

The Amazonas 5 was launched on 12 September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton Breeze M vehicle of the International Launch Services (ILS) Company.

HISPASAT's eleventh satellite will be operated by its Brazilian subsidiary HISPAMAR.

MADRID, 2 november 2017. HISPASAT's Amazonas 5 satellite is now in its final 61º West orbital position and has begun to offer the telecommunications services for which it was designed after having successfully passed the exhaustive testing carried out in space.

The Amazonas 5, built by Space Systems Loral (SSL) at its facilities in Palo Alto (California), offers coverage over the entire American continent and has an estimated useful life of 15 years. HISPASAT'S Brazilian subsidiary, HISPAMAR, will be responsible for the operation of the satellite.

The great technological capacity of the Amazonas 5 enables it to offer a wide range of communication services, both in the Ku band and the Ka band.

Through the Ku band, HISPASAT's new satellite will provide high-performance direct-to-home (DTH) television services and will enable the television service providers that operate with HISPASAT to transmit 500 new channels, which will consolidate 61º West as a leading position for the broadcast of these services in Latin America. The satellite will also be key for promoting 4K TV in the region.

The beams it incorporates in the Ka band will provide broadband connectivity and Internet access via quality and competitive satellite services to more than half a million people in several Central and South American countries. Furthermore, the Amazonas 5 will offer transport services or backhaul to operators in the region in order to deploy their 3G, 4G, and even 5G cellular networks.

Launched on 12 September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard an ILS Proton Breeze M launch vehicle, the Amazonas 5 is the fleet’s eleventh satellite and its launch took place on the same day that the Company launched the first space communications satellite, the Hispasat 30W-1 (Hispasat 1A), from French Guiana 25 years ago.

Innovation in the Amazonas 5

HISPASAT, faithful to its innovative vocation and the support it provides to the Spanish industry, has embarked in the Amazonas 5, an experimental load, now being tested, developed by DAS Photonics. It is an optical radio frequency distributor, a prototype of a system that may be important especially in satellites carrying the Ka band since, as they are multi-beam missions, they require an elevated number of receptors. This novel element would greatly reduce the complexity of the satellite's input section where hundreds of frequency conversions must be carried out, which in the future could be performed with this single component that would distribute the signals to each receptor. This would also reduce the mass and the volume of the satellite and improve the isolation between broadcast and reception of the signal.

About HISPASAT

HISPASAT is comprised of companies that have a presence in Spain as well as in Latin America, where its Brazilian affiliate HISPAMAR is based. HISPASAT is a world leader in the distribution and broadcasting of Spanish and Portuguese content, and its satellite fleet is used by important direct-to-home television (DTH) and high-definition television (HDTV) digital platforms. HISPASAT also provides satellite broadband services and other added value solutions to governments, corporations and telecommunication operators in America, Europe and North Africa. HISPASAT is one of the world's largest companies in its sector in terms of revenue, and the main communications bridge between Europe and the Americas.


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