Brasilsat A2 was a Brazilian

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 ...

satellite belonging to the Brasilsat family. It was built by

Spar Aerospace SPAR Aerospace was a Canadian aerospace company. It produced equipment for the Canadian Space Agency to be used in cooperation with NASA's Space Shuttle program, most notably the Canadarm, a remote manipulator system. The company went through a ...

in partnership with

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 ...

. For most of its useful life it was located in the orbital position of 70 degrees west longitude and was operated by

Star One Star One was an Indian pay television network based in Mumbai. It was launched on 1 November 2004 and was it owned by Star TV and distributed worldwide by Fox International Channels. In November 2006, Star One was launched in the UK on Sky. S ...

, a subsidiary company of

Embratel Embratel is a major Brazilian telecommunications company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. The company was the long distance arm of Telebras until it was bought by the U.S. company MCI Communications for 2.65 billion Brazilian real, reais during ...

. The satellite was based on the platform

HS-376 The Boeing 376 (sometimes referred to as the BSS-376, and previously as the HS-376) is a communications satellite bus introduced in 1978 by Hughes Space and Communications Company. It was a spin-stabilized bus that the manufacturer claims was th ...

and its life expectancy was 8 years. The same was out of commission in February 2004 and was transferred to the

graveyard orbit A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellites are moved int ...

.Brasilsat A2
TSE. Retrieved April 20, 2017.

Model

The satellite had the shape of a cylinder, where on its top was a directional antenna that opened after the launching of the satellite, had the rotation stabilized of 50 to 55

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

, its movers used like propellant 136 kilograms of

hydrazine Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly toxic unless handled in solution as, for example, hydrazine ...

and was fed by

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

s that supplied 982 watts at the beginning of its operation phase, using two NiCd batteries as power reserves. It carried 24 C-band transmitters with 6 spare transmitters. They provided an Effective Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP) effective incident radiation power> 34 dBW for most of the Brazilian territory.

History

In the 1980s, Brazil needed its own satellites to exempt foreigners. As a result of this effort, the Brazilian company

contracted in August 1982 the Canadian Spar Aerospace, Ltd., in partnership with American

, to build its series of "Brasilsat A" satellites, the series consisted of two satellites, the

Brasilsat-A1 Brasilsat A1 was a Brazilian communications satellite which was operated by Embratel. It was constructed by the Spar Aerospace, and is based on the HS-376 satellite bus. The Brasilsat A1 was off duty in March 2002 and was transferred to the grave ...

and the Brasilsat A2. Built by Spar Aerospace, which received

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

125 million to build under license from

, the two Brazilian satellites model HS-376. The satellites initially received the name of Brasilsat 1 and 2 and formed the beginning of the Brazilian Telecommunications Satellite System - SBTS. Subsequently, with the launch of the second generation of satellites, they were renamed Brasilsat-A1 and A2, and were replaced by the satellites

Brasilsat B1 Brasilsat B1 is a Brazilian communications satellite launched on August 10, 1994, by an Ariane rocket model 44LP at Guiana Space Centre which is located in Kourou, French Guiana. History It was constructed by the United States and Brazil and is ...

and Brasilsat B2. The Brasilsat A2 satellite was the second Brazilian satellite owned by the former state-owned Embratel, which was privatized on March 28, 1986, by a 2/3

Ariane rocket Ariane is a series of European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne. France first proposed the Ariane project and it was officially agreed upon at t ...

at Kourou's launch base in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. This satellite was equal to Brasilsat A1. It had a mass at the launch of 1,243 kg, Perigee of 35,778 km, Apogee of 35,794 km and a slope of 0.0 degrees. During its commercial life, it was parked at 70 degrees west. Its contractual life span was 8 years, but the satellite continued to be controlled until the end of 2004, with almost 18 years of life. Brasilsat A2 was operated directly by Embratel until the end of 2000, when

was created a subsidiary of

, which was used to manage Embratel's former fleet of satellites. After the satellite was launched in March 1986, it was placed in the orbital position of 70 degrees west

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 ...

. In 1994 it was transferred to 65 degrees west, where it remained until the month of June 1995, it was moved in August 1995 to 92 degrees west, where it remained until January 2001, it was transferred in March 2001 to 63 degrees west in sloping orbit, the Brasilsat A2 remained in this position until February 2004 when it left service and was sent to the

. Its replacement in the orbital position of 70 degrees west to continue with the telecommunications transmissions, was the satellite Brasilsat B1, that was released in 1994.

Release

The satellite was successfully launched into space on March 28, 1986, at 23:30 UTC, by means of an Ariane 3 vehicle launched from the Space launching base of the

Guiana Space Center 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 ...

along with the Satellite GStar 2. It had a launch mass of 1,140 kg.

Capacity and coverage

The Brasilsat A2 was equipped with 24

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

s in C-band (plus 6 reserve) to provide telecommunications services to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

References

External links

Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicaações (Embratel)

Star One satellites
{{Orbital launches in 1986 1986 in spaceflight Communications satellites Satellites using the HS-376 bus Star One satellites