Asiasat 5 has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome accompanied by a team from Space Systems Loral. The satellite, built by SSL is based on their well known Star 1300 bus, and will be launched on a Proton Breeze M rocket mid August.  The Proton launch vehicle, utilizing a 4-burn Breeze M will lift off from Pad 39 sometime mid August .  The first three stages of the Proton will use a standard ascent profile to place the Orbital Unit (Breeze M upper stage and AsiaSat 5) into a sub-orbital trajectory.  From this point in the mission, the Breeze M will perform planned mission maneuvers to advance the Orbital Unit first to a circular parking orbit, then to an intermediate orbit, followed by a transfer orbit, and finally to a geo-transfer orbit. Separation of the AsiaSat 5 satellite is scheduled to occur approximately 9 hours, 15 minutes after launch.

AsiaSat 5 is equipped with 26 C-band and 14 Ku-band transponders. The C-band coverage expands on the existing AsiaSat 2 pan-Asian coverage, and the Ku-band coverage consists of three high-power beams, two of which will cover East Asia and South Asia as well as the in-orbit steerable beam that can be positioned to provide service anywhere within the satellite’s view. The satellite is based on SS/L’s 1300 space-proven platform, which provides the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances.

In other related news, Asiasat has received proposals from several manufacturers for the supply and launch of Asiasat 6, following their “Request for Proposals” several months ago. Asiasat 6 is intended to replace Asiasat 3 at 105.5E and could also serve as a replacement for Asiasat 5, should there be any problem after launch.