The Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (''Bangabandhu-1'') is the first

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

s and broadcasting satellite. It is named after the father of the nation,

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali politi ...

. It was manufactured by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufacture ...

and launched on 12 May 2018. The satellite was the first payload launched by a

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thr ...

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 pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

Background

The project is being implemented by

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) ( bn, বাংলাদেশ টেলিযোগাযোগ নিয়ন্ত্রণ কমিশন) is an independent commission founded under the Bangladesh Telecommunic ...

(BTRC) working hand-in-hand with US-based Space Partnership International, LLC. The government-owned Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited, BSCL (Formerly known as Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited, BCSCL) was formed with the aim of operating the satellite. The satellite will expand Ku-band coverage over all of Bangladesh and its nearby waters including the Bay of Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, eastern Indian states (West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland,

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

) and Indonesia. This is coupled with C-band coverage for all aforementioned areas. Bangabandhu-1 was initially planned to be launched on an

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

Ariane 5 ECA rocket on 16 December 2017 to celebrate the

Victory day of Bangladesh Victory Day ( bn, বিজয় দিবস ''Bijôy Dibôsh'') is a public holiday, national holiday in Bangladesh celebrated on 16 December to commemorate the defeat of the Pakistan Armed Forces in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and th ...

. Following the lack of firm guarantee from

for that date, BTRC instead chose the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The satellite is now located at the 119.1° East longitude geostationary slot.

Construction

Bangabandhu-1 was designed and manufactured by

. The total cost of the satellite was projected to be 248 million US dollars in 2015 (Tk 19.51 billion), financed via a $188.7 million loan from

HSBC Holdings plc HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...

. The satellite carries a total of 40

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 ...

and C-band transponders with a capacity of 1600 megahertz and a predicted life span to exceed 15 years.

Map of satellite's position

Bangabandhu-1 Satellitle Position and Coverage

Launch

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Mission (42025498972)

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 was launched at 20:14 UTC on 12 May 2018, on a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

launch vehicle at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It was the first payload to be launched using the new SpaceX Block 5 model of the rocket.

Aborted launch

The satellite was originally planned to launch 10 May 2018. However the rocket carrying the payload triggered an automatic abort as it entered internal power and control at T-58 seconds. The rocket launch was pushed back 24 hours, and it was finally launched on 11 May 2018.

Operation

The satellite uses ground control stations built by Thales Alenia Space with its partner Spectra primary ground station in

Gazipur Gazipur ( bn, গাজীপুর) is a city in central Bangladesh. It is located in the Gazipur District. It is a major industrial city north of Dhaka. It is a hub for the textile industry in Bangladesh. Its other name is Joydebpur. Demogra ...

. Secondary ground station is at Betbunia,

Rangamati Rangamati (Bengali: রাঙ্গামাটি;) is the administrative headquarter and town of Rangamati Hill District in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The town is located at 22°37'60N 92°12'0E and has an altitude of . The distr ...

The first test signal after launch was received by the operators on 12 May 2018.

References

External links

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Bangabandhu-1 (BD-1) Communication Satellite - Aerospace-technology.com

A short documentary on Bangabandhu Satellite-1

Mission details

Benefits of Bangabandhu Satellite 1

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 launch Video
{{Orbital launches in 2018 2018 in Bangladesh Spacecraft launched in 2018 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites of Bangladesh SpaceX commercial payloads Memorials to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Telecommunications in Bangladesh Satellites using the Spacebus bus