Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Eutelsat said: "Our congratulations to ILS and Khrunichev for a flawless launch that sees a new Eutelsat satellite propelled on its way to geostationary orbit. This satellite programme reflects outstanding collaboration between Eutelsat, GSA, Airbus Defence and Space, Northrop Grumman, International Launch Services and Khrunichev. We look forward to putting EUTELSAT 5 West B to work for the benefit of our clients throughout Europe and North Africa and to the inauguration of EGNOS' GEO-3 payload that will improve the performance of global navigation satellite systems in Europe."