Europe*Star 1 storms into space

LONDON – Europe*Star 1 was successfully launched aboard an Ariane 44LP into geosynchronous transfer orbit from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

Europe*Star 1 will be ideally located at 45 degrees East over the Indian Ocean to bring unique connectivity and coverage over Europe, Southern Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia. It will service direct-to-user broadcast applications ranging from IP multicasting, digital TV, Internet, as well as distance education and rural communications.

"We are very pleased that the Europe*Star system will now enable connections that were never possible before with one single satellite", said Alain Roger, President and CEO of Europe*Star Ltd. "With Europe*Star 1 the beginning of a new era of a satellite system unfolds providing the capability to broadcast at high power over three continents, including 76 countries and 3 billion people."

Europe*Star 1 is an all Ku-band geostationary satellite with 30 transponders and a switching matrix providing connections between and throughout each of these five regions.

Europe*Star 1 was launched aboard an Ariane 44LP configuration, equipped with two solid propellant and two liquid propellant strap-on boosters.

"We have chosen to launch with Arianespace because of its reliability as a world recognized launch service provider, and its long standing success. We are looking forward to having Arianespace launch our future Europe*Star system satellites." noted Alain Roger.

Following the in-orbit testing period, in-service date for Europe*Star date is scheduled for January 2001.