Intelsat 5 (IS-5, PAS-5, Arabsat 2C) was a

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

providing television and communication services for

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 I ...

, which it was commissioned by in 2006.

Satellite description

It was manufactured by

Hughes Space and Communications The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other pro ...

. At beginning of life, it generates nearly 10 kilowatts. This version takes advantage of such advances as dual-junction

gallium arsenide Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated c ...

solar cells 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.

, new battery technology and the first commercial use of a high-efficiency

xenon ion propulsion system An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity. An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of ...

(XIPS).

PanAmSat The former PanAmSat Corporation founded in 1984 by Reynold (Rene) Anselmo, was a satellite service provider headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It operated a fleet of communications satellites used by the entertainment i ...

became HSC's first customer to launch the new model, on 28 August 1997, at 00:33:30 UTC, on a Russian

Proton-K The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 an ...

/ Blok DM-2M

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and sys ...

from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. PAS-5 provides satellite services in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...

, with access to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, including

direct-to-home Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...

(DTH) television services in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. Controllers began noticing degradation of the

nickel–hydrogen battery A nickel–hydrogen battery (NiH2 or Ni–H2) is a rechargeable electrochemical power source based on nickel and hydrogen. It differs from a nickel–metal hydride (NiMH) battery by the use of hydrogen in gaseous form, stored in a pressurized cel ...

in PAS-5 earlier in 1998. The effect on operations was analyzed in June 1998. During periods of peak

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six mon ...

, which occur twice a year, PanAmSat is required to shut off a portion of the satellite's payload for some time. PanAmSat reportedly received a compensation of US$185 million from its insurers after the satellite was declared a "total loss" because its capacity was reduced by more than 50%.

Arabsat 2C

PAS 5 was leased in May 2002 to the

Arab Satellite Communications Organization The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...

(Arabsat), under the name of Arabsat 2C. Arabsat used the spacecraft's 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 tra ...

to complement its partially defunct Arabsat 3A at 26° East. The television channels it broadcasts include

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

Australia Network ABC Australia, formerly Australia Television International (or just Australia Television), ABC Asia Pacific, Australia Network and Australia Plus, is an Australian pay television channel, launched in 1993 and operated by the Australian Broadca ...

and regular feeds of

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American first-run syndicated news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Paramount Streaming. ET also airs in Aus ...

and

The Wall Street Journal Report ''On the Money'', formerly ''The Wall Street Journal Report'', is an American syndicated weekly television program airing on weekends, and on Sunday evenings on CNBC. The program is hosted by Becky Quick. Political, business, and economic figur ...

. As of 28 September 2012,

was replaced with a static video slate advising that the service would be only available on the existing horizontally aligned lower powered

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

beam on

Intelsat 19 Intelsat 19 is a geostationary communications satellite operated by Intelsat. It was constructed by Space Systems/Loral, based on the LS-1300 satellite bus. It was successfully launched by Sea Launch using a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle on 1 June 20 ...

which is 3.94

GHz 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 ...

Intelsat 5

Intelsat 5 was moved at 169° East and has been broadcasting Australia Network Pacific on the horizontally aligned Pacific Beam 4.1 GHz when went silent and was sent to a higher "

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 into ...

" on 19 October 2012 around 23:00 UTC.

References

External links

Intelsat 5

New Intelsat 5 Channels in New Zealand, BBC World and Australia Network
{{Orbital launches in 1997 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites using the BSS-601 bus Spacecraft launched in 1997 Intelsat satellites