Spacecom, or Space Communication (), is an Israeli

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

operator in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

and North America headquartered in the city of

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and man ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Spacecom operates two satellites at orbital position 4° West –

AMOS-3 AMOS-3, also known as AMOS-60, is an Israeli communications satellite operated by Spacecom Satellite Communications. History Spacecom Satellite Communications has signed an agreement in September 2005 with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI ...

and AMOS-7, one satellite at orbital position 65° East –

AMOS-4 AMOS-4 is an Israeli commercial communications satellite, operated by Spacecom Satellite Communications, Tel Aviv-based, part of the AMOS series of satellites. History Spacecom, the AMOS satellites operator, announced in 2007 that it has ...

, and one satellite at orbital position 17° East –

AMOS-5 Amos-5 ( he, עמוס 5) was an Israeli commercial communications satellite, part of the AMOS series of satellites. It was developed and built for Spacecom by Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev (NPO PM), the largest Russian satellite pro ...

History

Spacecom was established in 1993 with a defined goal of marketing AMOS-1, a newly built communication satellite manufactured by

Israel Aerospace Industries Israel Aerospace Industries (Hebrew: התעשייה האווירית לישראל ''ha-ta'asiya ha-avirit le-yisra'el'') or IAI (תע"א) is Israel's major aerospace and aviation manufacturer, producing aerial and astronautic systems for both mi ...

(IAI). In 2003, Spacecom launched its second satellite,

AMOS-2 AMOS-2 is an Israeli commercial second generation communication satellite, part of the AMOS series of satellites. The satellite was positioned at 4° West longitude in the geostationary orbit. Transmission and communication services given by ...

, owned entirely by the company. In 2008, the AMOS-3 satellite was launched to replace AMOS-1 and to increase coverage and traffic abilities. Until 2005, Spacecom was a private company controlled by four companies, including IAI and Eurocom Group. It went public on the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ; colloquially known as The Bursa, ) is Israel's only public stock exchange and a public company that has been traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange since August 1, 2019. Legally, the exchange is regulated by ...

in 2005. In August 2016, Spacecom shareholders agreed to sell the company for US$500 million to Beijing Xinwei Technology Group ( China) via a

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

business entity. The deal, announced 24 August 2016, was pending the successful entry into service of

AMOS-6 AMOS-6 was an Israeli communications satellite, one of the Spacecom AMOS series, that was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a defense and aerospace company. AMOS-6 was intended to be launched on flight 29 of a SpaceX Falcon 9 ...

after the launch. On 1 September 2016, two days before the scheduled launch date, the satellite was destroyed during the run-up to a static fire test of the

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and ...

. Later statements from both companies stated that negotiations were ongoing, but that the purchase price was likely to be reduced. However, by April 2017 talks between Spacecom and Xinwei had failed, and Spacecom began a new search for buyers. In October 2021 Spacecom and 4iG Plc., a Hungarian information technology and telecommunications company, have signed the agreement in which 4iG is acquiring a majority stake (51%) in Spacecom.

Coverage

Spacecom satellites provide coverage to most of the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Services

* Direct-to-Home broadcasting ( DTH) * Broadband telephony *

Satellite Internet Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high d ...

VSAT A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 1 ...

Radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

Fleet

''Former'' * AMOS-1 *

(4° West) *

(17° East) – Israeli satellite launched from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

in 2011 by Russia's

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka ...

launch vehicle to provide services to customers in Africa. AMOS-5 initiated commercial operations in early 2012 with C-band and

Ku-band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...

beams. On 21 November 2015, all communications with the AMOS-5 satellite were lost. ''In orbit'' *

(4° West) *

(65° East) – was successfully launched on 31 August 2013 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It will offer coverage across Southeast Asia along with high power coverage beams offering communication links from East Asia to the Middle East. * AMOS-7 (4° West) – Lease of

AsiaSat 8 AsiaSat 8 then AMOS-7 is a Hong Kong-turned- Israeli geostationary communications satellite which is operated by the Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company (Asiasat). Satellite description AsiaSat 8 was built by Space Systems/Loral, and ...

References

External links