AMOS-5 established a new orbital position for Spacecom at 17°E, providing a full range of satellite services over Africa. Together with AMOS-2 and AMOS-3, co-located at 4°W orbital “Hot-Spot”, and AMOS-4 to serve Asia and Russia, AMOS-5 enhanced Spacecom’s satellite coverage over the Middle-East and Europe, while adding the emerging African markets to its service portfolio.

AMOS-5 offered pan-African coverage, featuring a high-power C-band beam and three regional Ku-band beams. With multiple C-band and Ku-band powerful transponders and excellent look angle, AMOS-5 enabled Spacecom to offer a variety of satcom services, including:

• VSAT communications and broadband Internet
• Telephony services
• Data trunking
• Cellular backhaul
• Direct-To-Home (DTH) TV broadcasting
• Video distribution

The AMOS-5 satellite was built by ISS Reshetnev from Russia. The satellite was launched on December 17th 2011 on a Proton-M/Briz-M launch vehicle operated by launch operator ILS.

In May 2012 the satellite’s power generator failed and Spacecom satellite operator activated the back-up power generator. This power generator also developed faults in September 2012 and October 2013 and the satellite’s initial lifespan of 15 years was expected to be shortened by 11 months.

On November 21st, 2015, communication signals with the AMOS-5 satellite were. Three weeks later, Spacecom operator announced that the satellite had failed completely and became a ‘Zombie’, orbiting at an altitude of 42,000 km for the foreseeable future.