spacetoday.net: New communications satellite fails in orbit

Posted: Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 8:43 PM ET (0143 GMT)
A newly-launched communications satellite, the first product of an Indo-European joint venture, has suffered a "major anomaly" in orbit and will not be used by its owner. Eutelsat announced Wednesday that it would not put into service the W2M satellite, launched on December 20 on an Ariane 5. The company said in a statement that the spacecraft suffered a major anomaly with its power subsystem that led Eutelsat to conclude that the satellite "does not comply with the requirements set with the spacecraft’s manufacturer." The spacecraft was the first built by a joint venture between the Indian space agency ISRO and EADS Astrium, a European satellite manufacturer, to provide relative small GEO communications satellites to commercial customers. Eutelsat said that the existing W2 satellite, located in the same slot in GEO as W2M, 16 degrees east, will continue operations there, and a new satellite under development, W3B, will be launched into that location in mid-2010.