Intelsat S.A. is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, from 1964 to 2001, it was an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international telecommunications and broadcast services.
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication 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. Many communications satellites are in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles (35,785 km) above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky; therefore the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be aimed permanently at that spot and do not have to move to track the satellite. Others form satellite constellations in low Earth orbit, where antennas on the ground have to follow the position of the satellites and switch between satellites frequently.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorology research. Spacecraft and ground-based elements of the system work together to provide a continuous stream of environmental data. The National Weather Service (NWS) and the Meteorological Service of Canada use the GOES system for their North American weather monitoring and forecasting operations, and scientific researchers use the data to better understand land, atmosphere, ocean, and climate dynamics.
SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies.
The Boeing Satellite Development Center is a major business unit of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. It brought together Boeing satellite operations with that of GM Hughes Electronics' Space and Communications division in El Segundo, California.
SES S.A., trading as SES is a Luxembourgish satellite telecommunications network provider supplying video and data connectivity worldwide to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions.
Spaceway-2 is part of DirecTV's constellation of direct broadcast satellites. The satellite was launched via an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on 16 November 2005. Its operational position is in geosynchronous orbit 35,800 kilometres (22,200 mi) above the equator at 99.2° West longitude. Spaceway-2 is a Boeing 702-model satellite with a 12-year life expectancy. It is expected to support high-definition television to DirecTV customers with its Ka-band communications payload. Although Spaceway-2 was originally built by Boeing to be used for broadband Internet access via Hughes Network Systems, it has been retrofitted to deliver HD local channels to numerous markets nationwide.
The Spaceway system was originally envisioned as a global Ka-band communications system by Hughes Electronics. When the project to build the system was taken over by Hughes Network Systems, a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, it was transformed into a phased deployment initially only launching a North American satellite system. This is in comparison to other more ambitious systems such as Teledesic and Astrolink which retained their full global nature and which subsequently failed to complete their systems. Hughes Network Systems working with Hughes Electronics subsidiary Hughes Space and Communications completed and built the North American Spaceway system meant to provide broadband capabilities of up to 512 kbit/s, 2 Mbit/s, and 16 Mbit/s uplink data communication rates with fixed Ka-band satellite terminal antennas sized as small as 74 centimetres (29 in). The broadband Spaceway system was standardized by Telecommunications Industry Association and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as the Regenerative Satellite Mesh - A Air Interface.
Spaceway-3 is a communications satellite which was launched on August 14, 2007, at 23:44:00 UTC. The third satellite in the Spaceway series, it includes a Ka-band communications payload. It is used by Hughes Network Systems to provide broadband Internet Protocol network service.
Launch Services Alliance is a "back-up" launch service provider. It is a joint venture between the multinational aerospace company Arianespace and Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; initially, the American aerospace firm Boeing Launch Services was involved as well.
Viasat, Inc. is an American communications company based in Carlsbad, California, with additional operations across the United States and worldwide. Viasat is a provider of high-speed satellite broadband services and secure networking systems covering military and commercial markets.
T10 is a Boeing model 702 direct broadcast satellite that provides high-definition television (HDTV) to DirecTV subscribers in North America. It was launched by International Launch Services on July 7, 2007 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard an Enhanced Proton Breeze-M rocket. After about two months of in-orbit testing, the satellite was moved to its operating position at 103.0° west longitude. This was the third DirecTV satellite launched on a Proton rocket. Prior launches include T8, which was launched on May 22, 2005, and T5, which was launched on May 7, 2002. The satellite was renamed to T10 in 2017.
T11, formerly known as DirecTV-11, is a Boeing model 702 satellite built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center. Its current name was adopted in 2017.
SkyTerra (SKYT), formerly Mobile Satellite Ventures, was a Reston, Virginia company that developed telecommunications systems that integrate satellite and terrestrial radio communication technologies into one system. In March 2010, the company was acquired by Harbinger Capital Partners and under the leadership of CEO Sanjiv Ahuja became part of a new company called LightSquared. The company placed its first satellite, SkyTerra-1, in orbit on November 14, 2010. LightSquared has since then went bankrupt and emerged from bankruptcy as Ligado Networks.
VeneSat-1, also known as Simón Bolívar, was the first Venezuelan satellite. It was designed, built and launched by the CGWIC subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It was a communications satellite operating from a geosynchronous orbit. The satellite was launched on a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center Launch Complex 2 on 29 October 2008 at 16:53 UTC.
The DirecTV satellite fleet is a group of communications satellites located at various geostationary orbits that DirecTV uses for their satellite television service and HughesNet internet service. The "DirecTV" prefix in their names has been changed to "T".
T12, formerly known as D12, is a Boeing model 702 satellite built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center. It was launched on December 29, 2009 and became operational on May 19, 2010. It is used by DirecTV to provide additional high definition channels and Video on demand content, as well as 3DTV channels and content. The satellite adopted its current name in 2017.
T14 is a communication satellite launched on December 6, 2014. It is the first satellite offering Ultra-HD 4K television services using Reverse DBS. The satellite adopted its current name in 2017.
ViaSat-2 is a commercial communications satellite launched June 1, 2017 and went live late February 2018. It was advertised to be the world's highest capacity communications satellite with a throughput of 300 Gbit/s, exceeding that of HughesNet EchoStar XIX, which launched in December 2016. It is the second Ka-band satellite launched by ViaSat after ViaSat-1. The satellite provides internet service through ViaSat to North America, parts of South America, including Mexico and the Caribbean, and to air and maritime routes across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
