Kuala Lumpur – MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. (“MEASAT”) announced on April 14 that Airbus Defence and Space (“Airbus”) has successfully completed the final integration and testing of MEASAT-3b. The satellite left the Airbus Defence and Space facilities in Toulouse, France, and has been transported by air to Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite is due to be launched in the upcoming weeks by an Ariane 5 launcher. Launch and Early Orbit Phase operations will be conducted from the Airbus Defence and Space’s spacecraft control centre in Toulouse.

MEASAT-3b

MEASAT-3b is the 36^th Eurostar E3000 satellite. Two other E3000s are about to be launched in the next few weeks from their respective launch sites and nine more are currently at various stages of production in Airbus Defence and Space’s factories.

MEASAT-3b will be launched into the 91.5°E orbital slot where it will be collocated with MEASAT-3 and MEASAT-3a to form Asia’s most robust Direct-To-Home (“DTH”) satellite neighbourhood. Designed with 48 Ku-band transponders, MEASAT-3b will be used to support data and video services across Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Australia.