The Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite or SGDC (in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''Satélite Geoestacionário de Defesa e Comunicações Estratégicas'') is a Brazilian geostationary communication satellite that was 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 manufactur ...

in France, it was placed in the orbital position of 75 degrees west longitude and will be operated by Telebrás. Telebrás selected Viasat as a partner to help build the associated ground system. The satellite was based on the Spacebus-4000 platform and its life expectancy will be 18 years. The satellite was successfully launched into space on May 4, 2017, at 21:52 UTC, by means of an Ariane 5 vehicle from the French company

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 ...

, launched from

Guiana Space Centre 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 ...

Kourou Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It i ...

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

, together with the Koreasat 7. It had a launch mass of 12,800 pounds (5,800 kg). The SGDC will be equipped with 50 Ka band transponders and 5 X band transponders to provide broadband internet and communications to the

Brazilian government The politics of Brazil take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The political and administrative o ...

and the Brazilian Armed Forces. A backup satellite, SGDC-2, was initially planned for launch no earlier than 2022. As of July 2021, the procurement of this satellite has been delayed indefinitely due to concerns over cost and the legality of the procurement agreement.

References

2017 in Brazil Spacecraft launched in 2017 May 2017 events in South America Communications satellites of Brazil {{Brazil-spacecraft-stub

See also

References