When speaking of the satellite business, no one would probably deny that the hottest part is still about building communication satellites. While optic fibers are going longer these days, satellites continues to provide fast and reliable ways of data transmission across the world. However while dozens are built each year, the market is small enough that there are only a few big players in the market today.
But other countries are now trying to squeeze in by developing capabilities to build them. Argentina is the latest member in the list, with their first ever comsat build in-house waiting for launch on the Ariane 5 rocket now sitting on the pad.
While
Argentina's aerospace company INVAP has built several scientific satellites before (
the latest being the Aquarius sea salinity research mission in co-operation with NASA), ARSAT-1 is their very first geostationary communication satellite built and developed in house. (
See this detailed article on why and how Argentina decided to join the crowd of comsat development!) Its 24 Ku-band transponders will provide the country and neighboring areas in South America with satellite broadcasting and data transfer capabilities.
Ironically the other (larger) passenger on this Ariane 5 provides a good comparison on today's satellite market. Intelsat 30 is owned by (of course!) the world's most famous and largest comsat operator and is built by one of the world's largest satellite constructors, Space Systems/Loral. It is also targeting the satellite TV business in Central/South America in co-operation with DirecTV, being the first of two satellites ordered for this project.
So maybe the "comsats are boring" meme isn't true after all..... :hmm:
Launch location:
Kourou Launch pad ELA-3 5° 14'06.34"N, 52° 46'06.34"W
Launch dates and times:
[table="head"]{colsp=6}Launch times
Time Zone|
Kourou / UTC-3
|
Paris /CEDT
|
Universal / UTC
|
Washington / EDT
|
Los Angeles / PDT
Launch time (Primary):
|
18:00:00
|
23:00:00
|
21:00:00
|
17:00:00
|
14:00:00
on:
|
Oct. 16, 2014
|
Oct. 16, 2014
|
Oct. 16, 2014
|
Oct. 16, 2014
|
Oct. 16, 2014
{colsp=6}
[highlight][eventTimer]2014-10-16 21:00:00?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Ariane flight VA-220 Launch[/highlight]
[/table]
Live Coverage Of The Launch:
PAYLOAD 1
Intelsat 30 communication satellite:
Mission Summary
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) announced in September 2011 that it has been awarded a contract to provide two high-power hybrid C- and Ku-band satellites, called Intelsat 30 and 31 or DLA 1 and 2, to Intelsat for Direct-to-Home (DTH) television service in Latin America. The two satellites will be operated by Intelsat, which will provide the complete Ku-band capacity of them to DIRECTV Latin America, a DTH digital television services operator in Latin America.
The Ku-band payloads, refered to as DLA 1 and 2, will be used to expand DTH entertainment offerings and provide backup and restoration services. The two satellites are scheduled for launch in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and will be co-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C satellite at 95°W, which DTVLA has used since 2002.
Each satellite will feature 10 C-band transponders for Intelsat’s own use for expanding its business in the growing Latin American market.
The two satellites are designed based on the decades proven Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform and the first is scheduled to launch in 2014. They are contracted to provide service for a minimum of 15 years.
[table="head"]{colsp=2}Summary
Parameter|
Value
Working Orbit:
|
GEO
Orbital Location:
|
95° West
Coverage:
|
The Americas
ApA at separation:
|
35786 km
PeA at separation:
|
250 km
Inc at separation:
|
6°
[/table]
[table="head"]Characteristics|
Intelsat 30
Customer:
|
Prime contractor:
|
Platform:
|
Mass at Separation:
|
Dry Mass:
|
Stabilization:
|
Dimensions (stowed):
|
Dimensions (deployed span):
|
On-board power:
|
Communication Payload:
|
- 72 Ku-band transponders
- 10 C-band transponders
Life time:
|
Transponders coverage:
|
|
|
[/table]
PAYLOAD 2
ARSAT-1 communication satellite:
Mission Summary
ARSAT-1 is an Argentine comsat project and is slated to enter service in 2012, and will be positioned at 71.8 degrees West. It will provide data, telephone, and television transmission services for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Weighing about 2.9 tons at launch, it will offer a design life of 15 years. The payload will be fitted with twelve 36 MHz, eight 54 MHz and four 72 MHz transponders, all in Ku-band and will use 3.5 kW of power.
INVAP is the prime contractor for this Project launched by the recently created company, AR-SAT SA. INVAP is responsible for the managing aspects of the project, the engineering development in all its phases, the fabrication and integration of the components (with the exception of the transponders, which will be commercial), and quality assurance. Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with Argentina's ARSAT to supply the payload for the ARSAT-1 satellite, as part of the SSGAT (Sistema Satelital Geoestacionario Argentino de Telecomunicaciones) program to manufacture the first Argentine geostationary telecom satellite.
[table="head"]{colsp=2}Summary
Parameter|
Value
Working Orbit:
|
GEO
Orbital Location:
|
71.8° West
Coverage:
|
Argentina and neighboring countries
ApA at separation:
|
35786 km
PeA at separation:
|
250 km
Inc at separation:
|
6°
[/table]
[table="head"]Characteristics|
ARSAT-1
Customer:
|
Prime contractor:
|
Platform:
|
Mass at Separation:
|
Dry Mass:
|
Stabilization:
|
Dimensions (stowed):
|
Dimensions (deployed span):
|
On-board power:
|
Payloads:
|
Life time:
|
Transponder coverage:
|
|
|
[/table]
Launch Vehicle:
[table="head"]{colsp=2}Characteristics
|[table="head"]{colsp=2}
Ariane 5 ECA
Prime contractor:
|
- Airbus Defence and Space (ex-EADS Astrium)
Height:
| 50.5 m with upper stage and payload fairing
Diameter:
| max 11.56 m
Liftoff mass:
| 780 metric tonnes
Payload mass:
| ~10 tonnes at GTO (1500 m/s to GEO)
SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER (EAP):
|
- 2 X P241 motor
- Empty 38 tonnes
- Propellants 240 tonnes (HTPB)
- Thrust in vacuum 700 tonnes of force
- Thrust at sea level 509.9 tonnes of force
CRYOGENIC MAIN CORE STAGE (EPC):
|
- 1 X Vulcain-2 engine
- Empty 14.7 tonnes
- Propellants 170 tonnes (LOX + LH2)
- Thrust in vacuum 139 tonnes of force
- Thrust at sea level 96 tonnes of force
CRYOGENIC UPPER STAGE (ESC-A):
|
- 1 X HM7B engine
- Empty 4.54 tonnes
- Propellants 14.9 tonnes (LOX + LH2)
- Thrust in vacuum 6.7 tonnes of force
Payload Fairing:
|
- Diameter 5.4 m
- Length 17 m
- Mass 2675 kg
[/table]
[/table]
The vehicle's
reliability statistics according to
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2014.html#rate:
Code:
================================================================
Vehicle Successes/Tries Realzd Pred Consc. Last Dates
Rate Rate* Succes Fail
================================================================
Ariane 5-ECA 44 45 .98 .96 44 12/11/02 2002-
Ariane VA220 Ascent Profile
The launcher’s attitude and trajectory are totally controlled by the two onboard computers, located in the Ariane 5 vehicle equipment bay (VEB).
7.05 seconds after start of the ignition of the main stage cryogenic engine at T-0, the two solid propellant boosters are ignited, enabling liftoff. The launcher first climbs vertically for 6 seconds, then rotates towards the East. It maintains an attitude that ensures the axis of the launcher remains parallel
to its velocity vector, in order to minimize aerodynamic loads throughout the entire atmospheric phase, until the solid boosters are jettisoned.
Once this first part of the flight is completed, the onboard computers optimize the trajectory in real time, minimizing propellant consumption to bring the launcher first to the intermediate orbit targeted at the end of the main stage propulsion phase, and then the final orbit at the end of the flight of the cryogenic upper stage. The main stage falls back off the coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean (in the Gulf of Guinea).
On orbital injection, the launcher will have attained a velocity of approximately 9,387 meters/second, and will be at an altitude of about 618.0 kilometers. The fairing protecting the Intelsat 30 and ARSAT-1 spacecraft is jettisoned shortly after the boosters are jettisoned at about T+201 seconds.
Ariane VA220 Ascent Timeline
[TABLE="head"]Event|Time rel lift-off|Time UTC|Comment
Start of synchronized sequence|-00:07:00|20:53:00|
Ignition of the cryogenic main stage engine (EPC)|00:00:00|21:00:00|
Liftoff (Ignition of solid boosters)|00:00:07.3|21:00:07.3|
End of vertical climb and beginning of pitch rotation (10 seconds duration)|00:00:12.6|21:00:12.6|
Beginning of roll manoeuvre|00:00:17.1|21:00:17.1|
Jettisoning of solid boosters|00:02:23|21:02:23|
Payload Fairing Separation|00:03:21|21:03:21|
Shut-down of main cryogenic stage|00:08:50|21:08:50|
Separation of main cryogenic stage|00:08:56|21:08:56|
Ignition of upper cryogenic stage (ESC-A)|00:09:00|21:09:00|
Injection|00:24:40|21:24:40|
Separation of Intelsat 30 satellite|00:27:52|21:27:52|
Separation of Sylda 5|00:31:48|21:31:48|
Separation of ARSAT-1 satellite|00:33:43|21:33:43|
[/TABLE]
Weather forecast for Kourou, French Guiana on October 16, 2014 (6 p.m.)
Partly cloudy. Low 24C.
Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Snow|Cloud cover|Pressure|Wind|Weather
6 PM|28°C|24°C|79%|39%|0%|60%|101 hPa|13 km/h E|
Chance of a Thunderstorm
References
http://www.arianespace.com
http://www.arianespace.tv
http://www.intelsat.com/
http://www.arsat.com.ar/en/
http://www.arianespace.com/images/launch-kits/launch-kit-pdf-eng/VA220-launchkit-EN-10-16-2014.pdf
http://english.wunderground.com/q/zmw:00000.1.81403?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://space.skyrocket.de
