Astrium has secured a contract from digital television entertainment services provider DirecTV to design and manufacture a new high-power telecommunications satellite, named DirecTV 15.

The satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2014 and will provide back-up and capacity expansion for television services to US customers.

DirecTV 15 will use Astrium’s Eurostar 3000 platform and will carry 30 high-power Ku-band transponders, 24 Ka-band transponders and 18 reverse band transponders.

The satellite will have a launch mass of 6,300 kg, an electrical power of 16kW and is designed to offer a service life of more than 15 years.

The company also said it will accelerate the launch of its DirecTV 14 satellite and signed the contract to launch DirecTV 15 to protect against the possible in-orbit failure of the DirecTV 10 satellite, which suffered a propulsion system failure this summer.

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