Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
3 successful launches in 8 1/2 days! This may still be a pipe dream for Elon Musk (or ULA, or Arianespace.....), but the Chinese have just did that with the launch of the newest communication satellite for China Satellite Communications company, ChinaSat 12, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10:13 UTC today. After a 26 minutes flight, the 5 tonne satellite was placed in a super-synchronous transfer orbit (207 x 50539 km x 26.8°). The satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space in southern France, carries 23 Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders (coverage map here) to serve the Asia-Pacific region (and as far as the Middle East, southern Africa and Australia). Part of the payload is also leased to SupremeSat, a Sri Lanka telecommunications company.
In fact the record could have been even shorter (6 1/4 days!), but this launch was pushed back from November 22 after a leakage was discovered during hypergolic fuel filling of the second stage.
This marks the 18th launch of the year of the Long March rocket series based on China's first ICBM (still in service today), the DF-5, more than any other rocket family. And that's not the end - the 19th is scheduled in mid-December with the launch of an Earth observation satellite for the Turkish ministry of defense. If only this happens with SpaceX......
NASASpaceflight.com: China’s 18th launch of 2012 sees Long March 3B loft ChinaSat-12
Launch Photos:
Launch news report (in Chinese):
References:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30011.0
http://bbs.fsfans.net/thread-3268-1-1.html (in Chinese)
In fact the record could have been even shorter (6 1/4 days!), but this launch was pushed back from November 22 after a leakage was discovered during hypergolic fuel filling of the second stage.
This marks the 18th launch of the year of the Long March rocket series based on China's first ICBM (still in service today), the DF-5, more than any other rocket family. And that's not the end - the 19th is scheduled in mid-December with the launch of an Earth observation satellite for the Turkish ministry of defense. If only this happens with SpaceX......
NASASpaceflight.com: China’s 18th launch of 2012 sees Long March 3B loft ChinaSat-12
Launch Photos:
Launch news report (in Chinese):
References:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30011.0
http://bbs.fsfans.net/thread-3268-1-1.html (in Chinese)
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