The Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite, operated by Azercosmos in a joint venture with Measat, and Hispasat’s Amazonas 3 satellite were successfully launched yesterday onboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.

GMV is playing a key role in both satellites. On the one hand it is integrating the complete ground segment of the Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite, including all the satellite-operation and –control software and hardware from its orbit insertion until the end of its 15-year mission life.

For the Amazonas 3 satellite GMV is supplying the satellite control center, including the satellite’s flight-dynamics and monitoring-and-control systems. These systems have been developed from GMV’s inhouse products focusGEO and hifly^®.

Azerspace/Africasat-1a, Azerbaijan government’s first ever telecommunications satellite, is a STAR-2 model of Orbital Sciences Corporation (Virginia, USA). This satellite will improve the quality and stability of Azerbaijan’s television broadcasts and communications, while also turning Azerbaijan into a signal retransmission country between Europe and Asia.

Its launch companion, the Amazonas 3 satellite, has been designed and built on an LS 1300 platform for the Spanish operator Hispasat by Space Systems Loral. Hispasat’s new satellite will provide thousands of people on the entire American continent with a great variety of advanced broadband services like high-speed internet and interactive services to meet this region’s growing demand for the information society. It would have been very difficult to roll out these services using earthbound networks.

Azerspace/Africasat-1a and Amazonas 3 are the first two satellites to be launched in 2013 onboard an Ariane 5 rocket.