August 6, 2019 – Arianespace has successfully orbited two geostationary telecommunications satellites: Intelsat 39 for the international operator Intelsat, and EDRS-C for Airbus, as part of a public-private partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). The launch took place on August 6, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. (local time) from the Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). The Intelsat 39 telecommunications satellite offers high-power, steerable, wide spotbeams to meet the needs of broadband network, video and government customers across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean region. Steerable spotbeams ensure payload flexibility, enabling customers to quickly and efficiently respond to changing geographic or application requirements. The satellite features both C- and Ku-band capabilities to provide additional scale for Intelsat’s Flex managed services and enhance mobile flexibility for aeronautical, maritime and government users in these regions. Intelsat 39 was built by Maxar in Palo Alto, California. It is the 57th satellite launched by Arianespace using a Maxar platform. The EDRS-C satellite is the second node in the SpaceDataHighway network. Based on state-of-the-art laser technology, EDRS, the SpaceDataHighway is the first fiber-optic network in space. Supported by a public-private partnership between Airbus and ESA, it will help improve environmental monitoring and security services, disaster response and crisis management. The European commission will be a key customer of the EDRS system at the benefit of the Copernicus program.