Hellas-Sat 3-Inmarsat S satellite constructed by Thales Alenia Space.
Hellas-Sat 3-Inmarsat S satellite constructed by Thales Alenia Space
Hellas-Sat is a premium satellite communications solutions provider founded in 2001 and acquired by satellite operator Arabsat, the 6th largest satellite operator in the world in 2013.
Hellas-Sat satellites are located at 39° East orbital slot offering excellent coverage over Europe, Middle-East and Southern Africa, delivering leading DTH-operators content to more than 3 million households, while we provide cost-effective solutions to enterprises and governments that want to expand connectivity to every location of their network in our coverage areas.
From Hellas-Sat ground facilities in Greece and Cyprus, the operator provides a wide range of managed services to meet customers’ communications needs when and wherever is required.
Hellas-Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN (EuropaSat) is a so called condosat, a satellite with a shared spacecraft bus. The satellite is jointly owned by Hellas-Sat and Inmarsatsatellite operators. Inmarsat operates the European Aviation Network (EAN), a unique, award-winning inflight broadband solution that has been developed and delivered by Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom (DT) in partnership with leading European companies such as Thales, Nokia, Airbus and EAD Aerospace. For Inmarsat the satellite will deliver a S-band Multi-beam mission and replaces the earlier cancelled EuropaSat project.
The satellite originally had a launch contract on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, operated by launch operator SpaceX. Inmarsat also had signed an option for a launch on ILS’ Proton Briz/M launcher to safeguard against further delays of the Falcon-Heavy. In late 2016, it was moved to an Ariane 5ECA launch in mid 2017.
Finally, on June 29th 2017 the Hellas Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN satellite was launched successfully by launch operator Arianepace and replaced Hellas-Sat 2. The satellite weighed about 5.9 tonnes at launch and would offer payload power of about 12.3 kW. Inmarsat S/Europasat/Hellas-Sat 3 is positioned at 39° East.
Hellas-Sat Consortium Ltd. (Hellas-Sat) is the satellite operator from Greece and the owner and a wholesaler of capacity and services of the Greek/Cypriot Hellas-Sat 2 satellite which was launched successfully on 13 May 2003 to the 39° E orbital position in the Geostationary Satellite Orbit. The satellite was controlled via two proprietary TT&C stations located in Greece and Cyprus. Hellas-Sat has its headquarters on Cyprus. In 2013 Arabsat from Saudi Arabia acquired Hellas-Sat.
The company has developed a network of strategically located teleport partners with DVB platforms, carrying over 100 Arabic television channels, including MBC and Rotana DTH platforms and IP-based services through its two fixed beams over Europe, and two steerable beams over the Middle East and South Africa. It offers high-power, direct-to-home transmissions as well as occasional video feeds and Internet access services.
The Hellas-Sat satellite fleet reportedly caters to an audience of almost three million DTH subscribers in Central and Eastern Europe, who watch premium satellite TV services from three DTH platforms, namely Dolce in Romania, Bulsatcom and others.
The Hellas-Sat group consists of two companies:
- Hellas-Sat Consortium, Ltd. a joint Greece-Cyprus venture registered in Cyprus with the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) as the majority shareholder, partnered with other strategic investors from Greece and Cyprus.
- Hellas-Sat SAT S.A is registered in Greece being subsidiary of the Cyprus Company. The Greek company manages and operates the uplink infrastructure of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) which is able to access 5 transponders providing multiplexing facilities for Video and Radio services, Conditional access for pay TV services and IP/data handling.