Spacecom confirms loss of Amos 5 satellite

Israel-based satellite operator Spacecom has confirmed the loss of its Amos-5 satellite at 17° East, according to local press.

Spacecom reported last month that it had lost contact with Amos-5 and that it was working to re-establish communication with the spacecraft, but that it did not have further information about the cause of the anomaly.

Despite careful study of the telemetry data, the operator failed to find a reason for the failure of the bird. Spacecom has been working with its customers to continue to meet their broadcast, broadband and communications requirements, either via its own capacity or via that of rival operators.

According to Israeli reports, Spacecom is filing a US$158 million insurance claim for the loss of the craft, and will submit a report to the insurer based on the manufacturer’s report.

Launched in 2011, the Amos-5 satellite offered direct-to-home TV, VSAT communications and broadband and other services to Africa. The satellite featured a fixed pan-African C-band beam and three steerable Ku-band beams — all covering Africa with connectivity to Europe and the Middle East.

Amos-6, equipped with a Ka-band payload is scheduled to be launched next year and will provide coverage of large parts of western, eastern and southern African via high-gain spotbeams. Spacecom recently struck a deal with Eutelsat and Facebook that will see the pair use the entire broadband payload on the satellite to deliver data connectivity to Africa.