JCSAT-4 was known as JCSAT-R until it was sold to

INTELSAT Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...

in 2009 (Intelsat 26). It is a

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 ...

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. C ...

designed and manufactured by

Hughes Hughes may refer to: People * Hughes (surname) * Hughes (given name) Places Antarctica * Hughes Range (Antarctica), Ross Dependency * Mount Hughes, Oates Land * Hughes Basin, Oates Land * Hughes Bay, Graham Land * Hughes Bluff, Victoria La ...

(now

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

) on the

HS-601 The Boeing 601 (sometimes referred to as the BSS-601, and previously as the HS-601) is a communications satellite bus designed in 1985 and introduced in 1987 by Hughes Space and Communications Company. The series was extremely popular in the 199 ...

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-d ...

. It was originally ordered by

JSAT Corporation JSAT Corporation (JSAT) was the first private Japanese satellite operator, which owned the JSAT satellites, as well as operated and partially owned the N-Star with NTT DoCoMo. Its origins can be traced to the funding of Japan Communications S ...

, which later merged into the

SKY Perfect JSAT Group The SKY Perfect JSAT Group is a Japanese corporate group that claims to be Asia's largest satellite communication and multi-channel pay TV company. It owns the SKY PerfecTV! satellite broadcasting service and the SKY Perfect Well Think content s ...

. It has a mixed Ku-band and C-band payload and was used as an on orbit spare.

Satellite description

The spacecraft was designed and manufactured by

on the

. It had a launch mass of , a dry mass of and a 12-year design life. When stowed for launch, its dimensions were . With its solar panels fully extended it spanned , and its width when its antennas were fully deployed was . Its power system generated approximately 5 kW of power due to two wings with four

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

each. It also had a single NiH₂ battery composed of 30

cells Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

and a 200 Ah charge. It would serve as on orbit backup for the JSAT fleet. Its propulsion system was composed of an R-4D-11-300 liquid apogee engine (LAE) with a thrust of . It also used had 12 bipropellant thrusters for station keeping and attitude control. It included enough propellant for orbit circularization and 12 years of operation. Its payload is composed of four octagonal antenna fed by twelve 36

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

and sixteen 27 MHz Ku-band plus twelve 27 MHz C-band

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 trans ...

for a total bandwidth of 1296 MHz. Eight of the 36 MHz and the sixteen 27 MHz Ku-band transponders have a

TWTA A traveling-wave tube (TWT, pronounced "twit") or traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA, pronounced "tweeta") is a specialized vacuum tube that is used in electronics to amplify radio frequency (RF) signals in the microwave range. The TWT belongs t ...

output power of 63 watts, the other four 36 MHz ones have 95 watts. It can configure four 27 MHz transponders into a single 54 MHz with an effective 125 watts. The twelve C-band transponders have 36 MHz bandwidth and 34 watts of power.

History

In December 1995, JSAT ordered its fourth satellite from

, and second of the

platform, the JCSAT-4. It was an almost copy of the JCSAT-3, also based on the HS-601, but with more powerful transponders. It would have a mixed Ku-band and C-band payload, a power generation capability of 5000 watts and a 12 year of design life. It was expected to be delivered by early 1997 and be positioned at the 124° East

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

. It would provide telecommunications and television services to Japan, all of

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 area ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and Australia and New Zealand. On 25 March 1996, International Launch Services (ILS) announced a contract with JSAT for the launch of JCSAT-4 aboard an Atlas IIAS. At the time it was expected to launch in January 1997 from Cape Canaveral at LC-36A launch pad. This was the second contract of ILS with JSAT after the successful launch of JCSAT-3 in August 1995. On 18 February 1997 at 01:42:02 UTC, and

Atlas IIAS Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first stage tanks, higher-performing engines ...

launched from Cape Canaveral LC-36B with JCSAT-4 towards a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). After the successful launch, it was renamed JCSAT-R. During its tenure as JCSAT-R it operated on the 124° East

. In August, 2008, JSAT was merged into the

Intelsat 26

In late 2009,

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...

bought JCSAT-R and rechristened it Intelsat 26. In March 2010, Intelsat announced an agreement with Türksat for loaning Intelsat 26 so the latter could keep its orbital rights until a new satellite could be launched. In July 2010, it was positioned at the 50° East longitude with a 3.4°

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

. In January 2013, the inclination had increased to 4.6°. In August 2016, the satellite was positioned at 64.1° East with a 6.97° inclination.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1997 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites using the BSS-601 bus Spacecraft launched in 1997 Intelsat satellites Communications satellites of Japan Satellites of Japan