Electric Propulsion for Commercial Applications: In-Flight Experience and Perspective at Eutelsat

Eutelsat launched its first satellite in 1983 and, with a fleet of 37 geostationary satellites, Eutelsat is today Europe's most long-standing satellite operator and one of the world's leading satellite operators. The procurement of telecom platforms using electric propulsion (EP) dates back to mid-90s with Siberian-European SATellite-1 (EUTELSAT 16C) that was launched in 2000. Then, a second platform, KA-SAT (EUTELSAT KA-SAT 9 A), was launched in 2010. This paper presents the design description and the results of the in-flight experience of these two platforms. In addition, an overview of the EP long flight heritage is provided to show the level of maturity and reliability reached by this propulsion technology for commercial applications. Finally, some considerations from the operator point of view are also discussed regarding the design of future EP telecom platforms.