Eutelsat Hotbird 13G is the second of two satellites built by manufacturer Airbus Defence and Space to be placed at Eutelsat’s flagship 13-degree Easy neighbourhood position, replacing three older satellites.
It is also based on the Eurostar Neo telecommunications satellite platform, developed under an ESA Partnership Project with Airbus designed to increase innovation and competitiveness in the European space industry.
The satellite will “reinforce and enhance the broadcast of more than a thousand television channels into homes across Europe”.
Eva Berneke, Eutelsat CEO said: "EEutelsat Hotbird 13G is now on its way to join Eutelsat Hotbird 13F at our flagship 13-degree East position.
“We also look forward to completing the GNSS network for our European Union long term customer and partner, the EUSPA.
“My congratulations to the Eutelsat, Airbus and SpaceX teams for another successful launch into geostationary orbit.”
In February 2021, Eutelsat was chosen by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) to host the EGNOS GEO-4 payload, which is on board the satellite.
Eutelsat already operates the EGNOS GEO-3 payload on its Eutelsat 5 West B satellite.
