The Hispasat 1D, since 2016 called Hispasat 30W-4 is a Spanish communications satellite launched in 2002 operated by

Hispasat Hispasat is the operating company for a number of Spanish communications satellites that cover the Americas, Europe and North Africa from orbital positions 30.0° West and 61.0° West. It was formed in 1989 and its activities include provision ...

. Together with the Hispasat 1C it formed a

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

in order to strengthen communication ties between the American continent (particularly South America) and the Iberian Peninsula for both governmental and private uses. The end of the service life of the constellation was scheduled for 2017 (after more than 15 years in active) however as of 2022 the Hispasat 1D is still active.

Body

The Hispasat 1D was built by

Alcatel 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 ...

. It is based in the Spacebus-3000B2

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

. The satellite has a dry mass of 1,345 kg (increased to 3,250 kg at launch). It is shaped as a rectangular prism whose lateral faces allocate four Silicon retractable solar panels capable of providing 7 kW (end of life) directly to the two sets of regulated power supplies. When fully deployed it has a

RCS RCS may refer to: Organisations *Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace * Radio Corporation of Singapore *Radcliffe Choral Society * Rawmarsh Community School *Red Crescent Society *Red Cross Society * Representation of Czechs and Slovaks, a football t ...

of 17.6011 m². The satellite is 3-axis stabilized thanks to a set of 4 FDIR reaction wheels.

Propulsion

The main propulsion for the satellite is provided by a liquid propelled S400-12 rocket engine. It was developed by ArianeGroup (former Airbus DS). It uses monomethylhydrazine and mixed oxides of nitrogen as fuel. It develops a thrust between 340 N and 440 N. Additionally, the satellite also contains 14 secondary bipropellant S10-18 engines for ABM and aspect control. They use

Dinitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

and monomethylhydrazine and are capable of developing up t0 10N of thrust. The fuel is allocated on two independent OST 22/4 surface-tension fuel tanks.

Communications module

The satellite is equipped with three antennas, 28 Ku-band transponders and several X-band transponders. It is intended to strengthen communications between the American continent Spain for government, commercial and military use. Particularly offering TV coverage from international channels to South America.

Launch

The satellite was launched the 18th of September 2002 at 18:00 on board an Atlas IIAS rocket from Space Launch Complex 36A in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station under the direction of Space Launch Delta 45. It was successfully put into a geostationary orbit 30º W with an apogee of 35,813.6 km, a perigee of 35,773.9 km, a semi-major axis of 42,164 km, an inclination of 2.5º and an orbital period of 1,436.1 minutes. During its service life it is being monitored from Hispasat's Satellite Control Centre in Arganda del Rey (Madrid).

References

External links

Hispasat (official site)
{{Orbital launches in 2002 Satellites of Spain Satellites in geostationary orbit