Intelsat 33e

Last updated

Intelsat 33e
NamesIS-33e
Intelsat 33 EpicNG
Mission type Communications
Operator Intelsat
COSPAR ID 2016-053A [1]
SATCAT no. 41747
Website Intelsat IS-33e
Mission duration15 years (planned)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftIntelsat EpicNG
Spacecraft type Boeing 702
Bus BSS 702MP
Manufacturer Boeing Satellite Systems
Launch mass6,600 kg (14,600 lb)
Dimensions7.9 m × 3.8 m × 3.2 m (26 ft × 12 ft × 10 ft)
Power13 kW
Start of mission
Launch date24 August 2016, 22:16:01 UTC
Rocket Ariane 5 ECA (VA-232)
Launch site Centre Spatial Guyanais, ELA-3
Contractor Arianespace
Entered service29 January 2017
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric orbit
Regime Geostationary orbit
Longitude60° East
Transponders
Band High throughput (HTS):
C-band: 20
Ku-band: 249 (36 MHz equivalent)
Ka-band: (450 MHz)
Bandwidth C-band: 2,670 MHz (downlink)
Ku-band: 9,194 MHz (downlink)
Ka-band: 450 MHz
Coverage area Europe, Central Africa, Middle East, Asia.
 

Intelsat 33e, also known as IS-33e, is a high throughput (HTS) geostationary communications satellite operated by Intelsat and designed and manufactured by Boeing Space Systems on the BSS 702MP satellite bus. [2] [3] It is the second satellite of the EpicNG service, and covers Europe, Africa and most of Asia from the 60° East longitude, where it replaced Intelsat 904. Australia habe national geo sat.. [4] It has a mixed C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band payload with all bands featuring wide and C- and Ku- also featuring spot beams. [2] [3] [5] [6]

Contents

Satellite description

Intelsat 33e was designed and manufactured by Boeing on the Boeing 702MP satellite bus. [2] [3] It has a launch mass of 6,600 kg (14,600 lb) and a design life of more than 15 years. When stowed for launch, the satellite measures 7.9 m × 3.8 m × 3.2 m (26 ft × 12 ft × 10 ft). [7]

It is powered by two solar panels, with four panels each, of triple-junction GaAs solar cells. [8] The 702MP platform was designed to generate between 6 kW and 12 kW, but Intelsat 33e is designed to generate 13 kW at the end of its design life. [8] [7]

Its payload is the second high throughput EpicNG deployment. The EpicNG is characterized by the implementation of frequency reuse due to a mix of frequency and polarization in small spot beams. Not only applied to the classical High-throughput satellite (HTS) Ka-band, but also applying the same technique in Ku-band and C-band. The EpicNG series also keep the use of wide beams to offer high throughput and broadcast capabilities in the same satellite. [4]

In the case of Intelsat 33e, the C-band side has 20 transponders with a total downlink bandwidth of 2,670 MHz. The spot beams offer high bandwidth for Europe, Central Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia, and a wide beam covers sub-Saharan Africa. The Ku-band has 249 transponder equivalent for a total downlink bandwidth of 9,194 MHz. The Ku-band spot beams cover Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, while a wide beam can broadcast to Europe, Middle East and Asia. The Ka-band payload has 450 MHz of bandwidth on a global beam centered at its position. [7] [5] [6]

History

In July 2009, Intelsat became the first customer of the Boeing 702MP satellite bus, when it placed an order for four spacecraft, Intelsat 21, Intelsat 22, Intelsat 27 and the first EpicNG satellite, Intelsat 29e. In May 2013, Intelsat made a second order for an additional four EpicNG satellites, the first of which would be Intelsat 33e. [8]

On 15 July 2016, Senior Space Program Managers Richard Laurie and Brian Sing blogged that they had been on the Boeing factory overseeing the transport preparations for Intelsat 33e to French Guiana. There it would join another Intelsat satellite, Intelsat 36, for integration on the Ariane 5 ECA launcher, which was expected to launch on 24 August 2016. [9] On 22 July 2016, Intelsat announced that Intelsat 33e had arrived to the Guiana Space Center for launch preparations. It also announced not only communication but aeronautical and maritime mobility clients that were expecting the satellite service. [10] On 27 July 2016, it was explained that the satellite had traveled by truck from the factory to an airport in California, where it was loaded in an Antonov 124. It flew to Florida for a refuelling stop and then flew straight to Kourou airport. [11] At the French launch site, even though Intelsat is the owner of the two passengers of the Ariane 5 ECA VA 232 flight, they have separate launch teams. Each satellite is built by a different manufacturer, and it has a different supervisor team within Intelsat. [11]

On 24 August 2016, at 22:16:01 UTC, after a slight delay due to a rocket issue, the Ariane 5 ECA VA-232 flight launched from Guiana Space Center ELA-3, with Intelsat 33e and Intelsat 36. At 22:44 UTC, Intelsat 33e separated from the rocket's upper stage. [12] After 41 minutes of flight, both satellites had separated successfully. [13] Intelsat confirmed that it had received the satellites signals as expected after separation. [12] [14] Arianespace estimated the insertion orbit as 248.7 km × 35,858 km × 5.98°, very close to the target of 249.0 km × 35,879 km × 6.00°. [15]

On 9 September 2016, Intelsat announced that due to a malfunction in the LEROS-1c primary thruster, it would require more time for orbit rising and thus the service date had been moved from the last quarter of 2016 to the first of 2017. [16] On 22 September 2016, insurance officials estimated that the main propulsion failure would not reduce the on orbit life of the spacecraft more than 18 months. This could translate to an insurance claim by Intelsat of around 10% (1.5 years) of the satellite service life, which could have a value close to US$40 million. [17] Intelsat 33e entered service on 29 January 2017, three months later than planned. [18]

In August 2017, another propulsion issue appeared, leading to larger-than-expected propellant usage to control the satellite attitude during the north/south station keeping maneuvers. This issue reduced the orbital life-time by about 3.5 years. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ariane 5</span> European heavy-lift space launch vehicle (1996–2023)

Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), low Earth orbit (LEO) or further into space. The launch vehicle had a streak of 82 consecutive successful launches between 9 April 2003 and 12 December 2017. Since 2014, Ariane 6, a direct successor system, is in development.

This is a list of the satellites operated by Optus, an Australian telecommunications company. The satellite communications facility is located at Belrose on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Optus' satellites are divided into 4 classes A, B, C and D. As of April 2014 it owns and operates Optus B3, Optus C1, Optus D1, Optus D2 and Optus D3. Optus A1, Optus A2, Optus A3 and Optus B1 satellites have been retired. Optus has the largest network of satellites in Australia and New Zealand.

The Regional African Satellite Communication Organization (RASCOM) will provide telecommunication services, direct TV broadcast services and Internet access in rural areas of Africa. Under an agreement with RASCOM, RascomStar-QAF will implement RASCOM's first 14 communications satellite project. This joint African project is expected to lower the continent's dependency on international satellite networks such as Intelsat.

Horizons-2 is a Ku band communications satellite owned by Horizons Satellite, a joint venture between SKY Perfect JSAT Group and Intelsat. Its orbital slot is located at 74° west longitude.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ELA-3</span> Launch pad at Kourou Space Centre, French Guiana

ELA-3, is a launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. ELA-3 was operated by Arianespace as part of the expendable launch system for Ariane 5 launch vehicles. As of July 2023, 117 launches have been carried out from it, the first of which occurred on 4 June 1996. The final launch occurred on 5 July 2023.

Türksat 2A, a.k.a. Eurasiasat 1, was a Turkish communications satellite as part of a project to form an instant network with two geosynchronous satellites that is supervised by the companies Türksat A.Ş. in Turkey and Eurasiasat SAM in Monaco.

Thor is a family of satellites designed, launched and tested by Hughes Space and Communications for British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), and were used for Britain's Direct Broadcast Service. Thor is owned by Telenor. Marcopolo 1 launched on 27 August 1989 on the 187th launch of a Delta rocket, and Marcopolo 2 launched on 17 August 1990, on a Delta II rocket. Marcopolo I had the Hughes designation HS376.

Yahsat 1A is a communications satellite constructed by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space for Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat). It was launched in April 2011 from Arianespace's Guiana Space Centre in Kourou French Guiana in a dual payload launch with Intelsat New Dawn atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. Yahsat Y1A is based on the Eurostar E3000 satellite bus and had a launch mass of about 6000 kg. It is intended to provide Ku, Ka and C-band communications to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Southwest Asia. It is in geosynchronous orbit at 52.5 degrees East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARSAT-2</span> Argentine geostationary communications satellite

ARSAT-2 is a geostationary communications satellite operated by ARSAT and built by the Argentine company INVAP. It was launched from French Guiana alongside Sky Muster satellite using an Ariane 5ECA rocket on September 30, 2015 at 20:30hs UTC, becoming the 400th satellite to be launched by Arianespace. It is licensed to be located at 81° West longitude geostationary slot. ARSAT-2 is the second geostationary satellite built in Argentina, after ARSAT-1. Structurally and mechanically it is a copy of the ARSAT-1, the only difference being the payload and thus it has different antenna configuration.

JCSAT-4B, known as JCSAT-13 before launch, is a geostationary communications satellite operated by SKY Perfect JSAT Group (JSAT) which was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin on the A2100 platform.

Horizons-3e, also known as IS-H3e, is a high throughput geostationary communications satellite ordered by Horizons Satellite, a joint venture of Intelsat and SKY Perfect JSAT Group. The spacecraft is designed and manufactured by Boeing on the Boeing-702MP platform.

The JSAT constellation is a communication and broadcasting satellite constellation formerly operated by JSAT Corporation and currently by SKY Perfect JSAT Group. It has become the most important commercial constellation in Japan, and fifth in the world. It has practically amalgamated all private satellite operators in Japan, with only B-SAT left as a local competitor.

Intelsat 29e, also known as IS-29e was a high throughput (HTS) geostationary communications satellite designed and manufactured by Boeing Satellite Development Center on the BSS 702MP satellite bus. It is the first satellite of the EpicNG service, and covers North America and Latin America from the 50° West longitude, where it replaced Intelsat 1R. It also replaced Intelsat 805 which was moved from 56.5° West to 169° East. It has a mixed C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band payload with all bands featuring wide and the Ku- also featuring spot beams.

Intelsat 36, also known as IS-36, is a geostationary communications satellite operated by Intelsat and designed and manufactured by Space Systems/Loral on the SSL 1300 satellite bus. It covers Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia from the 68.5° East longitude, providing media and content distribution with the South Africa MultiChoice company as anchor customer. It has a mixed C-band and Ku-band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intelsat 35e</span> Communications satellite

Intelsat 35e, also known as IS-35e is an Intelsat high-throughput (HTS) geostationary communications satellite designed and manufactured by Boeing Satellite Systems on the Boeing-702MP satellite bus. It was launched on 5 July 2017.

SES-17, is a high throughput all electric geostationary communications satellite owned and operated by SES S.A., and designed and manufactured by Thales Alenia Space. Launched on 24 October 2021 from Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG), in Kourou, French Guiana by an Ariane 5ECA launch vehicle, SES-17 was positioned at 67.1° west in May 2022 and, after testing, became fully operational in June 2022.

Intelsat 706 is a geostationary communication satellite that was built by Space Systems/Loral (SSL). It is located in the orbital position of 157 degrees east longitude and it is currently in an inclined orbit. The same is owned by Intelsat. The satellite was based on the LS-1300 platform and its estimated useful life was 15 years.

References

  1. ↑ "Display: Intelsat 33e 2016-053A". NASA. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Krebs, Gunter (12 April 2019). "Intelsat 33e". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Intelsat 33e". Satbeams. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 "White Paper — The Intelsat EpicNG Platform" (PDF). Intelsat. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Intelsat 33e Fact Sheet" (PDF). Intelsat. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Intelsat 33e at 60° E". Intelsat. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 "Launch Kit VA232" (PDF). Arianespace. August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 "Intelsat" (PDF). Boeing. October 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "Working Double-Time: Intelsat's Next Launch". Intelsat. 15 July 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  10. ↑ "Intelsat 33e Arrives in French Guiana amid Preparations for August 24th Launch on Ariane 5". Intelsat. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  11. 1 2 "The Launch of Intelsat 33e: Let the Campaign Begin!". Intelsat. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Intelsat 33e, the Second Intelsat EpicNG Satellite, Successfully Launched into Orbit". Intelsat. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  13. ↑ Bergin, Chris (24 August 2016). "Ariane 5 sets new record via the lofting of Intelsat pair". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  14. ↑ Clark, Stephen (24 August 2016). "Intelsat celebrates double success with Ariane 5 launch". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  15. ↑ "Intelsat "doubles down" with Arianespace for an Ariane 5 dual success". Arianespace. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  16. ↑ "Intelsat Updates In-Service Date for Intelsat 33e". Intelsat. 9 September 2016. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  17. ↑ de Selding, Peter B. (22 September 2016). "Intelsat: Thruster failure may reduce IS-33e's operational life, but not by much". SpaceNews. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  18. ↑ Stephen Clark (30 January 2017). "Intelsat satellite in service after overcoming engine trouble". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.