SaudiGeoSat 1/HellasSat 4, also known as SaudiGeoSat 1/HellasSat 4 (abbreviated SGS-1/HS-4), is a Saudi and Greek

geostationary communication satellite A geosynchronous satellite is a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, with an orbital period the same as the Earth's rotation period. Such a satellite returns to the same position in the sky after each sidereal day, and over the course of a day tra ...

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST; ar, مدينة الملك عبدالعزيز للعلوم والتقنية) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is an organization established in 1977 as the Saudi Arabian National Center for Science & ...

(KACST) and HellasSat. It was built by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

and was launched on 5 February 2019 on board Ariane flight VA247. The satellite will provide Telecommunications capabilities, including television, Internet, telephone and secure communications in the Middle East, South Africa and Europe. It is the 16th Saudi satellite launched into spaceLockheed Martin Completes Hellas-Sat-4/SaudiGeoSat-1 Satellite Assembly and Ships to Environmental Testing
Lockheed Martin 30 November 2017 and the 4th Greek and Cypriot satellite.

Manufacturing

SGS-1 satellite was developed, manufactured and tested by

in collaboration with KACST where 11 Saudi engineers were trained and certified by Lockheed Martin.

Launch and Specification

SGS-1/HS-4 was launched on an

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

operated by

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 ...

from the

Centre Spatial Guyanais The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximatel ...

in French Guiana on Ariane flight VA247. The satellite weighted fully fuelled for launch, and it was placed into a

geostationary transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellite, Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous orbit, geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into ...

(GTO). It will maintain a geosynchronous orbit at 39.0° East longitude.

References

Communications satellites 2019 in Saudi Arabia 2019 in Greece Satellites of Saudi Arabia Spacecraft launched in 2019 Satellites of Greece Satellites using the A2100 bus {{communications-satellite-stub