Amazonas 1 ends its useful life

The fifth satellite in the Hispasat fleet completes its reorbiting process, which began on June 19, 2017, remaining in a graveyard orbit from now on.

Hispasat The reorbiting process of the Amazonas 1 satellite has ended this weekend. This process, which began on June 19, has ended after the transmission of the last command from the Hispasat Satellite Control Center in Arganda del Rey, with which the passivation procedure of the satellite has been completed after having effectively provided communications services throughout its useful life, despite having suffered a fuel leak shortly after launch.

The Amazonas 1 satellite was launched on August 5, 2004 from Baikonur, aboard the Proton M Breeze M rocket, from the ILS company. Built by the company EADS Astrium, currently Airbus, it was the first satellite located in the Brazilian orbital position of 61º West. In 2014, thanks to an agreement with Intelsat, the satellite was moved to the 55.5º West position. Throughout its useful life, Amazonas 1 has made more than 25,000 transmissions from 19 different countries, has made 613 maneuvers in orbit and has witnessed 1,170 Earth eclipses and 29 lunar eclipses.

Amazonas 1 was the cornerstone of the company's geographic expansion into the Latin American markets. This satellite, with transatlantic and Pan-American capabilities, has covered the entire American continent, Europe and North Africa. Based on the Eurostar 3000 platform, its main services were the distribution of television channels, both in Europe and America, and other telecommunications solutions, such as corporate networks or broadband applications, among others.

Antonio Abad, technical and operations director of Hispasat, highlighted that "the Amazonas 1 satellite has been very special for Hispasat because it was the first step in the company's internationalization. The satellite initially suffered a fuel leak that put its future operation in question. Despite this, the Amazonas 1 has fulfilled the majority of its useful life, something that was unthinkable after that failure. This shows that it was a robust and reliable satellite, in the line of quality to which Airbus has us. accustomed, with the collaboration of the Spanish industry, which also participated in its development.”

For his part, Arnaud de Rosnay, SVP Telecommunications Satellites of Airbus, stated that "we are proud to be the industrial partners of Hispasat since its creation and we thank them for their trust, which has allowed us to contribute to their numerous successes. Amazonas 1 begins a well-deserved retirement and the replacement is ready, in particular thanks to Amazonas 2, also built by Airbus, and which offers an increase in capacity in one of the main orbital positions of our distinguished client. “Hispasat.”

Now, Amazonas 1 has finished traveling 300 km. that range from its position 36,000 km away from the Earth to the so-called “cemetery orbit”, where it has been definitively located, as established by the recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee for the proper maintenance of the geostationary orbit when a satellite ends its useful life.