Eutelsat’s new Hotbird 13F satellite has been successfully launched into Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
The Airbus satellite was successfully launched by SpaceX using a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States at 13.22 Eastern Time (05.22 UTC) on October 15th.
The separation of the all-electric satellite occurred after a 35-minute flight and the spacecraft systems initialisation was successfully completed over a period of 3 hours.
“Our congratulations to the Eutelsat, Airbus and SpaceX teams for successfully launching our Eutelsat Hotbird 13F satellite into geostationary orbit. This satellite brings the latest technology resources of the new Eurostar Neo platform at our leading 13-degree East position and confirms a long-term partnership between Airbus and Eutelsat,” said Eutelsat Chief Technical Officer Pascal Homsy.
Hotbird 13F and a second satellite, also manufactured by Airbus, will ultimately replace three older satellites at Eutelsat’s 13 degrees East flagship neighbourhood position.
