Israeli Spacecom said it lost contact with the Amos-5 satellite on Saturday morning and has been unable to reconnect with it since.
“Spacecom is working around the clock, doing the utmost to speed service recovery for its customers. Our service teams are looking for solutions for our customers to enable their broadcast signals and data communications streams to continue with minimal interruption,” said Spacecom CEO and president, David Pollack.
Amos provides services to the African continent, including a number of DTH services, and a small number of Israeli customers.
A statement sent to the Tel Aviv stock exchange said Spacecom would freeze services to its customers as a result of the disconnect.
“At this point, the company does not have any information on the nature of the problem that caused the communication failure. The company has been unable to reestablish contact with the satellite,” Spacecom wrote in a statement.
“The Company wishes to clarify, based on the preliminary examinations it carried out, that even if there will be a ‘total loss’ (complete failure) of the satellite, this would have a negligible effect on the equity of the company.”
The first four Amos satellites were built in Israel by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), while the Amos-5 satellite was built by a Russian manufacturer. The satellite was launched in December 2011.
Two years ago, in November 2013, Amos-5 experienced power problems, but these were resolved at the time.
The next Amos satellite to be launched is Amos-6, scheduled to launch in February 2016, but will be placed at the 4 degrees West position, while Amos-5 is stationed at 17 degrees East.
One of the affected platforms is the German Satelio DTH service, which offers a bouquet of German language TV channels. On its website, Satelio said it is now desperately looking for another satellite to take over its services.
