The satellite was on board an Ariane 5 vehicle, and lift-off occurred at 6.20pm EST on January 27 with the satellite separating from the rocket 38 minutes later. Signal acquisition has now been confirmed.
“Today’s launch represents a truly ‘epic’ moment in communications history, as we begin a new era of high throughput satellite services for our customers,” said Stephen Spengler, Intelsat CEO.
Manufactured by Boeing, Intelsat 29e is designed to bring high throughput capacity in both C- and Ku-band to North and Latin America as well as the North Atlantic region.
Intelsat 29e is the 56th satellite launched by Arianespace, and it will be placed into service at 320 degrees East to replace Intelsat 1R.
“This is a testament to the innovation and creativity of the Intelsat team who envisioned the Intelsat EpicNG platform nearly four years ago,” Spengler added.
“Through design expertise and a deep understanding of our customers’ requirements, the Intelsat EpicNG platform will deliver high performance, improved economics and simplified access that will expand the addressable market for our solutions.”
The second Intelsat EpicNG satellite, Intelsat 33e, will serve Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and is due to launch in Q3 2016.
