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.

Arianespace will launch two new satellites into orbit on the 21st of August, the launcher will carry JCSAT-12 for Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT and Optus D3 destined to be co located with Optus C1 at 156 East.

The launch will be made using the Ariane 5 launcher from French Guinea with a one hourlaunch window starting at 22:09GMT, (08:09 AEST). The launch will be viewable on the web at http://www.videocorner.tv/.

The Optus D3 satellite will allow a quite significant capacity increase for customers locatedin Australia and New Zealand with Pay TV provider Foxtel already announcing 20 additional services to be added to their platform by the end of this calendar year. Optus (Sigtel) commissioned the D series satellites to be produced by Orbital and will be the most powerful satellite of the Optus constellation. The D series will be capable of generating up to 5 kW of payload power, distributing this power over an almost identical Australian footprint to the other D series satellites.

TerreStar’s system will occupy two 10MHz segments of spectrum in the 2GHz range throughout North America and Canada.

Space Systems Loral has built the TerreStar-1, the world’s largest commercial satellite, based on their SSL1300 platform, which has been delivered to French Guiana, where it will be launched on June 24 aboard a dedicated Ariane 5 launcher. The satellite will utilize its 18 metre antenna to generate over 500 spot beams covering Continental USA, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

According to the company, the satellite will deliver services over a wide range of commercially available devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, laptops and two way radios, eliminating the need for bulky satellite phones.

The handset shown on the company’s website looks no larger than a Blackberry, or similarly sized PDA, and will operate under Windows Mobile 6 Professional which includes Internet Explorer, Outlook, Office, Media Player (H264 playback). The handset is capable of delivering up to 5 hours talk-time and 240 hours standby time.

For more info, visit: www.terrestar.com

HOT BIRD 10

When you need to fix a satellite there is only one way to do it. Launch another one!

Fancy watching the behind the scenes of a satellite launch? From payload integration to training with the French Foreign Legion who guard the launch site, National Geographic’s World’s Toughest Fixes has it all promises to be a must see for the sat enthusiast. 

The show, due to air from the 4th June, takes a behind the scenes look at the launch of the $250m HOT BIRD 10 satellite on an Ariane 5 rocket. The launch site, in the depths of the French Guiana jungle presents its own challenges to presenter.

Likewise, the sensitivity of the project is apparent with security requiring that only the host enter some areas, forced to do his own filming.

It should be a fascinating look at the process of getting a communications satellite in orbit, bringing communication and entertainment to millions.