On 29 June a European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from the Kourou spaceport to place in orbit the new telecommunications satellite of the Hellas Sat fleet, a subsidiary of Arabsat. 

Hellas Sat 3, a shared satellite between Hellas Sat and Inmarsat, will carry out two missions: Inmarsat will deploy an integrated satellite and ground network that will deliver robust, high capacity inflight broadband for airline passengers across Europe, while Hellasat will offer Direct-to-Home (DTH) television and Telecom services to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, substituting and enlarging the capabilities of its forerunner, Hellas Sat 2, which is now reaching the end of its useful life. GMV has developed the Hellas Sat 3 flight dynamics system and monitoring
and control system. Both these systems have been developed from GMV’s inhouse focusGEO and hifly® solutions, and have been successfully integrated and deployed in a modern and environmentally-friendly virtual environment using blade and vSphere servers. As well as the software, GMV is also providing training, support and maintenance for the system’s end users. 

The launch and operational commissioning of this satellite represent further success in the development of both satellite-control systems.