Hot Bird 13C, formerly Hot Bird 9, is a communications satellite operated by Eutelsat, launched 20 December 2008 aboard an Ariane 5ECA carrier rocket along with the Eutelsat W2M spacecraft. It was built by EADS Astrium, based on a Eurostar E3000 satellite bus. It was positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 13°E. After in-orbit testing it will provide communications services to Asia, Europe, Americas, North Africa and the Middle East, with 64 NATO J-band (IEEE Ku band) transponders. The satellite has a mass of 4,880 kilograms, and an expected service life of 15 years. It is identical to the Hot Bird 8 and Hot Bird 10 satellites.