Maintaining an average of one orbital launch per week, SpaceX has brought Egypt's most modern telecommunications satellite into orbit. The 'usual' Falcon 9 has placed the satellite in geostationary transfer orbit with a spectacular launch from Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX launched an Egyptian telecommunications satellite into geostationary orbit on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. This was the first commercial launch of a geostationary satellite this year, another sign of a shift in the market towards smaller communications satellites and in lower altitudes. With launch on Wednesday, the Nilesat 301 satellite began a planned 15-year mission to provide Ultra HD television broadcasting services and Internet connectivity in Egypt and other parts of Africa and the Middle East. The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 17:04 local (23:04 UTC) on Wednesday from the SLC-40 ramp at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, starting a 33-minute mission to position the Nilesat 301 spacecraft. of about 4.1 tons, on an elongated transfer orbit of nearly 45,000 kilometers above the Earth. According to tracking data from the US military, the Falcon 9 took Nilesat 301 into an orbit tilted about 18.6 degrees with respect to the equator. Owned by Egyptian operator Nilesat, largely controlled by the Egyptian government, the new satellite is set to operate in a circular geostationary orbit, or GEO, nearly 36,000 kilometers above the equator at 7 degrees west longitude. where it will provide TV and Internet broadcasting services. The spacecraft will use its own propulsion system for the final maneuvers that will allow it to reach its operational orbit. The launch on Wednesday was the 23rd launch of a Falcon 9 this year, and the first with a satellite headed for geostationary orbit, a usual area for television broadcasting and data transmission spacecraft. It was also the first real commercial launch on a geostationary transfer orbit around the world this year. The geostationary satellite launch market was once a lucrative business for launch service providers, including SpaceX. But the satellite market has shifted to smaller spacecraft, including constellations flying in low earth orbit, or LEOs, to broadcast broadband signals to consumers. Geostationary satellites are typically large in size and carry greater communication capacity than a single LEO telecommunications spacecraft. In geostationary orbit, they orbit in step with the Earth's rotation, allowing a ground antenna to point to the same point in the sky for a continuous connection with the satellite.
SpaceX operates the Starlink network, the largest satellite fleet in the world, and other companies are developing and deploying their own low-orbit constellations. "Having a first commercial launch of GEO in the middle of the year is indicative of a softer GEO market and growing demand for LEO missions," said Caleb Henry, senior industry analyst at Quilty Analytics. But there's more to the story, Henry added. In 2018, commercial satellite operators ordered manufacturers just five large spacecraft for traditional geostationary communications. With most large satellites taking a few years to build and prepare to launch, the low number of geostationary satellite orders in 2018 now translates into a slow year for geostationary launches, according to Henry.
There were 11 commercial orders for geostationary satellites in 2019, but that number was still well below the industry average of 20 in previous years, Henry said. There are two other factors that affect the geostationary satellite business, Henry continued. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the construction of satellites and exposed problems in global supply chains. And many of the geostationary satellites that have been ordered in recent years are geared towards ultra-high-emission missions. These often require the design and development of new technologies and one-of-a-kind re-configurable payloads, resulting in longer build times, Henry said. Some of the new ultra-high-speed satellites designed for geostationary orbit are therefore still under development. Built in France by Thales Alenia Space, Nilesat 301 will replace the Nilesat 201 spacecraft launched in 2010. "The capabilities of the new satellite also include the provision of broadband Internet services to cover the Arab Republic of Egypt and remote areas to provide services. Internet for new projects, infrastructure projects, new urban communities and oil fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially the Zohr field, ”Nilesat said on his website.
Thales delivered the Nilesat 301 to Cape Canaveral last month after a transatlantic voyage by ship from France. The launch of the Nilesat 301 has been delayed since the end of April after the intended means of transport, a Russian-owned Antonov cargo plane, became unavailable following sanctions imposed by Western governments due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. . Nilesat 301 hosts Ku-band and Ka-band telecommunications payloads, including 38 transponders, to transmit signals to Nilesat customers. Nilesat 301 will replace and expand the coverage provided by Nilesat 201, reaching new customers in East Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. "We look to the future with many strategic partnerships between our African countries and for this Nilesat has built its vision towards its natural expansion into sub-Saharan Africa with the new Nilesat 301 satellite," said Nilesat. Founded in 1996, Nilesat claims its current satellites reach more than 56 million households with over 270 million viewers in North Africa, the Middle East and Gulf regions. The new Nilesat 301 satellite is the fourth to be purchased and launched for Nilesat, which also leases capacity on third-party communications satellites. Nilesat 301 will also operate in tandem with the TIBA 1 satellite directly owned by the Egyptian government. TIBA 1, launched in 2019, provides civilian and military broadband and data transmission services. "We are delighted to continue to support Nilesat in this growth by providing customized satellite products with exceptional performance," said Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. "This result demonstrates that our telecommunications offering perfectly meets the needs of the telecommunications market and that we are perfectly capable of providing tailor-made solutions that meet the specific requirements of each operator, to improve global connectivity and reduce the digital divide." As the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket carried Nilesat 301 into orbit, the first stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth for recovery after completing its two-and-a-half-minute ignition to lift the satellite off the ground. After separating from the second stage, the booster traversed space for a few minutes before returning to the atmosphere aiming for a rocket-assisted vertical landing on SpaceX's drone ship in the Atlantic, nearly nine minutes after takeoff.
This first stage of the Falcon 9 - serial number B1062 - thus completed its seventh flight with a perfect landing in the center of SpaceX's floating drone barge JRTI ('Just Read The Instruction'), located approximately 680 kilometers east of Cape Canaveral. . The booster debuted with the launch of a US military GPS satellite on November 5, 2020 and has since launched another GPS payload, the private astronaut missions of Inspiration4 and Axiom's Ax-1 as well as two missions that transported the Starlink Internet satellites. Over the course of its seven flights, the booster has now carried 105 satellites and eight people into orbit. The launch of Nilesat 301 was the first of up to six Falcon 9 rocket flights scheduled for June. Next up for SpaceX is the launch of a German military radar observation satellite from California on June 18 and two mid-June missions from Florida with a Globalstar data transmission satellite and multiple Starlink Internet transmission spacecraft. With this flight, SpaceX reaches the following milestones: 116th vertical landing of a first stage, 99th of an already used one. In total, the Falcon 9 has completed 156 missions. It was the 63rd orbital space flight for 2022, the 61st to be successfully completed.
Source & Copyright:
© Copyright Alive Universe
