Americas Asia-Pacific EMEA
Sponsors













  


















 
 










 

HISPASAT appoints SSL to build the Amazonas 5

5 December, 2014

Spanish satellite telecommunications operator, HISPASAT, has appointed Space Systems Loral (SSL) to build the Amazonas 5, which will provide a wide range of telecommunications services in Latin America. This new satellite constitutes an expansion of the Amazonas 4B project, to which the full capacity of the Amazonas 4A was added. Indeed, redefining the 4B mission is just one of the measures HISPASAT has taken in attempt to minimize any impact the anomaly detected in the Amazonas 4A power subsystem might have. As a result, not only will HISPASAT Group complete within a short period of time its capacity offer, which may be reduced by the incident occurred in the Amazonas 4A, it will also have additional capacity in Latin America - one of the regions with the highest growth in demand for satellite services.

Amazonas 5 has a high throughput Ka-band spot beam payload, which will be used for broadband service in South America, Central America and Mexico. It also has a Ku-band beam for fixed satellite services, which will be used for television, corporate networks and other telecommunications applications. The multi-mission payload of the Amazonas 5 will be distributed as follows:

• 24 Ku band transponders will provide three coverage areas:
- Brazil in transmission, with coverage across its entire territory,
- Latin America in transmission, with coverage in Central and South America, excluding Brazil, and
- South America in reception, with coverage over some of the main cities in Brazil and Latin America.
• Furthermore, 35 Ka band beams will provide coverage in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica and Venezuela.

“We are very happy to team with SSL on Amazonas 5,” said Carlos Espinós, chief executive
officer of HISPASAT. “As the leader in commercial satellite manufacturing, SSL is wellpositioned
to support our current innovation and expansion initiatives by providing us with an
outstanding satellite.”

“I would like to thank HISPASAT for its ongoing confidence in SSL,” said John Celli, president of
SSL. “Amazonas 5 is the fourth satellite that we will build for HISPASAT, with two currently on
orbit and another in backlog. We look forward to continued teamwork on this high performance
satellite that will help HISPASAT broaden the availability of high quality communications in Latin
America.”

The Amazonas 5 is based on SSL's 1300 platform, which provides the flexibility needed to be
able to house a wide range of payloads for commercial communications satellites. With
approximately 9.8 kW of power, the Amazonas 5 is designed to deliver service for 15 years
or longer and will be designed, manufactured and tested at the SSL facilities in Palo Alto,
California. It is due to be launched in 2017.