AsiaSat 7 is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

communications satellite 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 ...

, which is operated by the

based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company (AsiaSat). It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 105° East of the Greenwich Meridian, where it serves as a back-up for the

AsiaSat 5 AsiaSat 5 is a Hong Kong communications satellite, which is operated by the Hong Kong based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company (AsiaSat). It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 100.5° East of the Greenwich Meridian, ...

satellite and replaced

AsiaSat 3S AsiaSat 3S, was a geosynchronous communications satellite for AsiaSat of Hong Kong to provide communications and television services all across Asia, the Middle East and Oceania. Background In March 1998, AsiaSat ordered a replacement satell ...

. It is used to provide

fixed satellite services Fixed-satellite service (short: FSS | also: fixed-satellite radiocommunication service) is – according to ''article 1.21'' of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) – defined as ''A radiocommunication s ...

, including broadcasting, telephone and broadband

very small aperture terminal A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 16 ...

(VSAT) communications, to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and the Pacific Ocean region.

Satellite description

Space Systems/Loral and

AsiaSat Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited, known by its brand name AsiaSat, is a commercial operator of communication spacecraft. AsiaSat, based in Hong Kong, is incorporated in Bermuda. AsiaSat is jointly owned by Chinese state-owned ...

announced in May 2009, that it has been chosen to provide a new communications satellite, named AsiaSat 5C. In early 2010, the satellite was renamed AsiaSat 7. At launch, AsiaSat 7 had a mass of , and was expected to operate for fifteen years. It carries 26 C-band and 14

Ku-band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight tran ...

Launch

AsiaSat 7 was built by

Space Systems/Loral SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies. SSL designs and builds satellites and space systems for a wide variety of government and commercial cus ...

, and is based on the LS-1300

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus- ...

. It is being launched by

International Launch Services International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) is a joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Angara and Proton rocket launch services. Proton launches take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan while Angara is l ...

(ILS), using a

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and ...

with a

Briz-M The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M (russian: Бриз-К, КM and M meaning ''Breeze-K, KM and M'') are Russian liquid-propellant rocket orbit insertion upper stages manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and used ...

upper stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage is ...

. The launch was conducted from Site 200/39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, at 19:10:34 UTC on 25 November 2011. The Briz-M separated from the Proton-M nine minutes and forty-one seconds into the flight, and AsiaSat 7 separated from the Briz-M into a

geosynchronous transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step f ...

(GTO) nine hours and thirteen minutes after liftoff. It then raises itself into its final geostationary orbit.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2011 Spacecraft launched in 2011 AsiaSat satellites Satellites using the SSL 1300 bus

Satellite description

Launch

See also

References