The W satellites are designed to provide telecommunications services primarily over
Europe (Eutelsat W2, W3 and W5) and communication services over Russia
and Africa (W4). W2, W3 and W5 are designed to offer 24 transponders at saturation and W4
is designed to provide 31 transponders at saturation. The W satellites have a
minimum operational lifetime of 12 years. The spacecraft are based on the Spacebus-3000B2 platform.
The original W1 satellite was damaged during construction by a
malfuncioning fire extinguishing system. It was declared a total loss, but was later
reconstructed and completed as W5. The replacement for the W1, which was
to be named W1R was reconfigured before launch and finally launched as Eurobird 1.
Eutelsat W2 stopped broadcasting in January 2010 and was moved to a graveyard orbit in March 2010.
Eutelsat W5 suffered in 2008 the loss of one of its solar arrays due to the array's failed drive motor, leading to a switch-off of 4 of the 24 transponders.
In December 2011 Eutelsat announced, that their satellite assets will be renamed under a unified brand name effective from March 2012. W5 and W6 became Eutelsat 70A and Eutelsat 21A respectively. Eutelsat 70A was later renamed Eutelsat 25C and Eutelsat 21A became Eutelsat 48C.
