Brasilsat-A1

Last updated
Brasilsat-A1 / SBTS 1
Mission type Communication
Operator Embratel (1985-1995)
PanAmSat (1995-2002)
COSPAR ID 1985-015B
SATCAT no. 15561
Mission duration 8 years (planned)
11 years (completed) [1]
Spacecraft properties
Bus HS-376
Manufacturer Spar Aerospace  / Hughes
Launch mass 1,195 kilograms (2,635 lb)
Dry mass 671 kilograms (1,479 lb)
Power 982 W
Start of mission
Launch date08 February 1985 (1985-02-08), 23:22 UTC
Rocket Ariane 3
Launch site Kourou ELA-1
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Geostationary
Longitude 65° W
Semi-major axis 42,180.5 kilometres (26,209.7 mi)
Eccentricity 0.00072
Perigee 35,779 kilometres (22,232 mi)
Apogee 35,840 kilometres (22,270 mi)
Inclination 0.1°
Period 1,437.3 minutes
Epoch 08 February 1985 [2]
Transponders
Band 24 IEEE C-band (NATO G/H-band)

Brasilsat A1 was a Brazilian communications satellite which was operated by Embratel. It was constructed by the Spar Aerospace, and is based on the HS-376 satellite bus. The Brasilsat A1 was off duty in March 2002 and was transferred to the graveyard orbit.

Brazil Federal republic in South America

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populated city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.

Communications satellite artificial satellite designed for telecommunications

A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunications signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. Communications satellites are used for television, telephone, radio, internet, and military applications. There are 2,134 communications satellites in Earth’s orbit, used by both private and government organizations. Many are in geostationary orbit 22,200 miles (35,700 km) above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky, so the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be aimed permanently at that spot and do not have to move to track it.

Embratel

Embratel is a major Brazilian telecommunications company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. The company was the long distance arm of Telebras until it was bought by the U.S. company MCI Communications for 2.65 billion reais during the 1998 break-up of Telebras. However, MCI Communications went bankrupt in 2003. Since 2003, it is owned by América Móvil, the Mexican telecommunications giant.

Contents

Specifications

The satellite had the shape of a cylinder, where at its top was located a directional antenna that opened after the launching of the satellite. The satellite had a mass in orbit of 671 kg, had a rotation stabilized between 50 and 55 rpm, its propellers used as a propellant 136 kg of hydrazine and was powered by solar cells that supplied 982 Watts at the beginning of its phase of operation, using two NiCd batteries as power reserve. It carried 24 C-band transmitters with 6 spare transmitters. They provided an Effective Incident Radiated Power (EIRP) effective incident radiation power 34 dBW for most of the Brazilian territory.

Revolutions per minute is the number of turns in one minute. It is a unit of rotational speed or the frequency of rotation around a fixed axis.

Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula N
2H
4, called diamidogen, archaically. It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colorless and flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour.

Solar cell electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect

A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices can be combined to form modules, otherwise known as solar panels. In basic terms a single junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.

SPAR Aerospace was a Canadian aerospace company. It produced equipment for the Canadian Space Agency to be used in cooperation with NASA's Space Shuttle program, most notably the Canadarm remote manipulator system.

The Boeing 376 is a communications satellite bus introduced in 1978 by Hughes Space and Communications Company. It was a spin-stabilized bus that the manufacturer claims was the first standardized platform.

History

In the 1980s, Brazil needed its own satellites to exempt foreigners. As a result of this effort, the Brazilian company Embratel contracted in August 1982 the Canadian Spar Aerospace, in partnership with American Hughes, to build its series of satellites Brasilsat A, the series consisted of two satellites, the Brasilsat A1 and the Brasilsat A2. The Brasilsat A1 satellite was the first Brazilian satellite to give Brazil independence in satellite telecommunications services, through the former state-owned Embratel, now privatized. Before it, Embratel only rented third-party satellite transmitters.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Hughes Aircraft Company defunct American aerospace and defense contractor

The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other products, the Hughes H-4 Hercules Spruce Goose aircraft, the atmospheric entry probe carried by the Galileo spacecraft, and the AIM-4 Falcon guided missile.

The satellite was launched on February 8, 1985, by an Ariane model rocket from the Kourou launch base in French Guiana and placed in a geostationary orbit over Brazilian territory.

Ariane (rocket family) european rocket family

Ariane is a series of a European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne. France first proposed the Ariane project and it was officially agreed upon at the end of 1973 after discussions between France, Germany and the UK. The project was Western Europe's second attempt to develop its own launcher following the unsuccessful Europa project. The Ariane project was code-named L3S.

Kourou Commune in French Guiana, France

Kourou is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. In addition to being an administrative district in French Guiana, it is also the main town in that district.

French Guiana Overseas region and department of France in South America

French Guiana is an overseas department and region of France, on the north Atlantic coast of South America in the Guyanas. It borders Brazil to the east and south and Suriname to the west. Since 1981, when Belize became independent, French Guiana has been the only territory of the mainland Americas that is still part of a European country.

Two satellites were acquired from the company Spar Aerospace, model HS-376, manufactured under Hughes Space licenses. They cost about $125 million. The satellites initially received the name of Brasilsat 1 and 2 and formed the beginning of the Sistema Brasileiro de Telecomunicações por Satélite or SBTS (in English: Brazilian Telecommunications Satellite System). The satellite was stationed on the meridian 65 degrees west. Subsequent to the launch of the second generation of Brasilsat satellites, they were renamed Brasilsat A1 and A2. With the end of its life and already in an inclined orbit, the Brasilsat A1 was sold to HCI in October 1995. The antenna was redirected to North America. Control of the satellite was passed to PanAmSat on November 12, 1997.

Hughes Communications is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar. It is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland and provides a high-speed satellite internet service, HughesNet, which is the largest service of its kind with more than 1.3 million subscribers in the Americas.

North America Continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere

North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere; it is also considered by some to be a northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea.

The former PanAmSat Corporation founded in 1984 by Reynold (Rene) Anselmo, was a satellite service provider headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. It operated a fleet of communications satellites used by the entertainment industry, news agencies, internet service providers, government agencies, and telecommunication companies. Anselmo got the idea for PanAmSat from Norm Leventhal, a communications lawyer in Washington, D.C., to whom he had turned to for advice regarding difficulties he was encountering in getting reasonably priced satellite transmission for his Spanish International Network (SIN), the current-day Univision. Anselmo financed the entire project himself and Leventhal's law firm, hiring Martin Rothblatt for special satellite technical advice, filed for approval from the Federal Communications Commission and lining up an initial satellite from RCA Astro-Electronics and a heavily discounted launch from Arianespace.

After the satellite was launched in February 1985, it was placed in the orbital position of 65 degrees west longitude. In 1994 it was transferred to 63 degrees west in inclined orbit, where it remained until the middle of June 1996, when it was moved to 79 degrees west in inclined orbit, where it remained until August 1998 in January 1999 it went to 144 degrees west in inclined orbit, the Brasilsat A1 remained in this position until March 2002 when it left of service and was sent to the graveyard orbit.

Its replacement in the orbital position of 65 degrees west to continue with the telecommunications transmissions, was the satellite Brasilsat B2, that was released in 1995.

Release

The satellite was successfully launched into space on February 8, 1985 at 23:22:00 UTC by means of an Ariane 3 vehicle launched from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana along with the Arabsat-1A. It had a launch mass of 1,195 kg (2,635 lb).

Capacity and coverage

Brasilsat A1 was equipped with 24 transponders in C-band (plus 6 spare) to provide telecommunications services to Brazil.

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References

  1. ↑ Gunter Kirk Krebs. Brasilsat A 1, 2. Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  2. ↑ NASA. Brazilsat 1. National Space Data Center. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
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