SICRAL 1B is a military

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 ...

built 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 ...

for

Italian Armed Forces The Italian Armed Forces ( it, Forze armate italiane, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police and ar ...

. It is a dual-use spacecraft:

Telespazio Telespazio Spa is a European spaceflight services company founded in 1961. It is a joint venture owned by Leonardo (67%) and Thales Group (33%) headquartered in Rome. Telespazio provides services that include the design and development of space s ...

will use some of the satellite's transmission capacity and some will be used by the Italian defense ministry and NATO. The spacecraft is based on the Italsat 3000 bus and includes one EHF/Ka band, three UHF-band and five active SHF-band transponders. It is designed to be operable for 13 years.

Construction

was the

prime contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

for development and construction of the SICRAL 1B satellite.

Launch

On April 20, 2009

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...

used a

Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL is an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it has been launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye Des ...

to carry SICRAL 1B 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 ...

. Liftoff from the

Ocean Odyssey LP ''Odyssey'' is a self-propelled semi-submersible mobile spacecraft launch platform converted from a mobile drilling rig in 1997. The vessel was used by Sea Launch for equatorial Pacific Ocean launches. She works in concert with the assembly ...

launch platform took place at 08:16 GMT.

References

Satellites orbiting Earth Military satellites Satellites of Italy Spacecraft launched in 2009 Communications satellites of Italy {{Italy-spacecraft-stub