Eutelsat 5 West B is located at 5° West, a key digital infrastructure addressing predominantly French, Italian and Algerian broadcast markets.

The satellite is co-located with Eutelsat 5 West A, ensuring service continuity for over 300 TV channels broadcast at the 5° West position. It provides business continuity for services via a Ku-band payload with switchable transponders to increase commercial flexibility.

Eutelsat 5 West B also hosts the GEO-3 payload of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS). The EGNOS’ GEO-3 payload is designed to improve the performance of global navigation satellite systems in Europe.

Airbus Defence & Space and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) were selected to build the new satellite. Airbus Defence & Space has built the satellite’s payload while the platform was manufactured by NGIS.

Eutelsat 5 West B was launched on October 9th, 2019 on a Proton M rocket operated by launch operator ILS from the Baikonour Cosmosrome launch site in Kazachstan.

Eutelsat 5 West A remains operational in orbit at 5° West to carry out other missions.