EUTELSAT 117 WEST B (W*)

Eutelsat 117 West B is a commercial geostationary communications satellite operated by Eutelsat Americas, a regional subsidiary of the French satellite group Eutelsat Communications. Catalogued by the United States Space Surveillance Network under NORAD ID 41589 and the international COSPAR designator 2016-038B, the spacecraft was launched on June 14, 2016, and remains operational in geostationary orbit as of the time of writing. Built by Boeing Satellite Development Center and weighing 1,963 kilograms at launch, it occupies a slot that provides coverage over portions of the Americas, serving the commercial communications needs typical of the Eutelsat fleet.

Mission and Purpose

The satellite's formal mission type is not publicly recorded in the orbital catalog, and specific payload details—such as the number of transponders, frequency bands, or precise service footprint—have not been disclosed in the verified documentation associated with this entry. What can be established from its operator profile is that Eutelsat Americas, the entity responsible for the spacecraft, operates as the North and South American arm of the broader Eutelsat Communications group, a major French satellite operator that has historically ranked among the largest in the world by revenue. The orbital slot over which this satellite operates—indicated by the "117 West" designation in its name—places it at approximately 117 degrees west longitude, a position well suited to providing connectivity across the western hemisphere, including portions of North America, Central America, and potentially parts of South America and the Pacific rim.

Satellites in this orbital neighborhood are commonly used for direct-to-home television broadcasting, broadband internet distribution, government and enterprise data services, and maritime or aviation connectivity. While the specific services carried by Eutelsat 117 West B are not confirmed in the catalog record reviewed here, these represent the typical commercial communications applications for a spacecraft of its class and location. The absence of confirmed mission specifics in the public catalog is not unusual for commercial payloads, as operators often limit technical disclosures for competitive and contractual reasons.

The mission status is not confirmed in the tracking record. Whether the satellite is actively serving its originally intended function, operating in a reduced capacity, or has been placed in storage mode cannot be determined from the available catalog data.

Orbit and Tracking

Eutelsat 117 West B occupies a nearly perfect geostationary orbit, one of the most precisely maintained orbital regimes in operational use. Its tracked apogee stands at 35,795 kilometers and its perigee at 35,792 kilometers above the Earth's surface, yielding an orbital altitude that barely varies across a full revolution—a spread of only three kilometers between the highest and lowest points. This near-circular profile is characteristic of a well-established geostationary slot, where continuous station-keeping maneuvers are performed to counteract the natural perturbations caused by lunar and solar gravitational effects, solar radiation pressure, and the slight asymmetry of Earth's gravitational field.

The inclination of the orbit is recorded at 0.0 degrees, confirming that the satellite travels directly above the equatorial plane. This equatorial alignment is what produces the defining property of geostationary orbit: from any fixed point on Earth within the satellite's coverage zone, the spacecraft appears stationary in the sky, enabling antennas to be aimed at a fixed point rather than tracking a moving target. This characteristic makes geostationary platforms especially practical for broadcast services, where consumer dish antennas need to be installed and aligned only once.

The orbital period is 1,436.1 minutes—very close to the 1,436-minute sidereal day that defines the geostationary condition. This tight match between orbital period and Earth's rotation rate is what anchors the satellite above a fixed longitude on the ground. Even small deviations from this period would cause the satellite to drift gradually east or west along the geostationary arc, which is why active station-keeping is an ongoing operational requirement throughout a satellite's working life.

For tracking purposes, Eutelsat 117 West B presents a challenge common to all geostationary satellites: because it appears stationary against the sky from the surface, it does not produce the kind of visible pass that low-Earth-orbit objects generate. Ground-based observers with appropriate radio equipment can detect its signal, but optical tracking is of limited practical interest to amateur observers.

Design and Operator

Eutelsat 117 West B was manufactured by the Boeing Satellite Development Center, a division of Boeing that has produced a wide range of commercial communications satellites over several decades. At a launch mass of 1,963 kilograms, the spacecraft falls into the medium-to-large class of commercial geostationary payloads, consistent with the kinds of satellites Boeing has built for other commercial operators around the world. The specific bus or platform on which the satellite is based is not confirmed in the catalog data available here.

The operator, Eutelsat Americas, functions under the umbrella of Eutelsat Communications S.A.—a company headquartered in France that has grown since its origins as an intergovernmental organization into one of the world's leading commercial satellite operators. Eutelsat's reach is substantial, with a fleet that has historically provided coverage across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The company has long been positioned as the third-largest satellite operator globally by revenue, competing with operators such as SES and Intelsat at the top of the industry.

More recently, Eutelsat has expanded its strategic ambitions through its subsidiary Eutelsat OneWeb, which operates a large constellation of low-Earth-orbit broadband satellites and positions the group as a competitor in the emerging market for non-geostationary broadband services—the same market that SpaceX's Starlink constellation has aggressively entered. This broader corporate context underscores the ongoing relevance of assets like Eutelsat 117 West B within a company that is simultaneously investing in next-generation infrastructure while maintaining its established geostationary fleet.

Current Status and Significance

As of the information available in the orbital catalog, Eutelsat 117 West B remains in orbit and has not undergone a decay or reentry event. Its continued presence in the geostationary arc reflects the typical operational longevity expected of commercial satellites of its generation, which are generally designed for service lives measured in roughly fifteen to twenty years, depending on fuel reserves and component health.

The satellite's significance lies primarily in its role as part of Eutelsat's coverage strategy for the Americas—a market that the company has addressed through its regional subsidiary. Geostationary satellites positioned at the 117-degree west longitude slot serve a strategically useful location for reaching populations across a wide band of the western hemisphere, and the investment in a Boeing-built spacecraft of this mass class suggests a commitment to providing meaningful capacity at that orbital position.

The broader commercial geostationary satellite industry that Eutelsat 117 West B represents has been under increasing competitive pressure in recent years, as low-Earth-orbit constellations such as Starlink and Eutelsat's own OneWeb network have begun to offer broadband connectivity with lower latency than is physically achievable from the 35,000-plus-kilometer altitude of geostationary orbit. Despite this competitive dynamic, geostationary satellites retain significant advantages for broadcast distribution and for coverage of areas where the economics of dense low-orbit constellations are less favorable. Eutelsat 117 West B, whatever its specific service role, operates within this continuing commercial landscape.

Mission status details—whether the satellite is fully operational, in a transitional phase, or approaching end-of-life—are not confirmed in the publicly available catalog record. As is standard practice, geostationary satellites approaching the end of their useful lives are typically maneuvered into a graveyard orbit several hundred kilometers above the geostationary arc, safely removing them from the operational belt without requiring atmospheric reentry. Whether and when that transition might apply to this spacecraft is not something that can be stated on the basis of the available data.

How to Observe It

Eutelsat 117 West B is not a target suited to conventional visual satellite-watching. Geostationary satellites do not rise, cross the sky, or set as seen from the ground—they remain fixed at a single point in the sky relative to any observer on Earth's surface. This means the familiar technique of watching for a moving point of light, which works well for low-Earth-orbit objects like the International Space Station or the Hubble Space Telescope, does not apply here.

For observers equipped with binoculars or small telescopes who know exactly where to look in the geostationary arc—which appears as a band just above Earth's equatorial plane extended into the sky—it is theoretically possible to detect geostationary satellites as faint, stationary points, distinguishable from stars only by careful cross-referencing against star charts. At an altitude of approximately 35,793 kilometers, however, and without any propulsive motion to catch the eye, Eutelsat 117 West B offers little reward for optical observers. Its primary value to the tracking community lies in its role as a catalogued orbital object whose position, maintained with great precision in the geostationary belt, contributes to the broader picture of the increasingly congested equatorial orbital environment.