Horizons Satellite is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between

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 In ...

and

SKY Perfect JSAT Group The SKY Perfect JSAT Group is a Japanese corporate group that claims to be Asia's largest satellite communication and multi-channel pay TV company. It owns the SKY PerfecTV! satellite broadcasting service and the SKY Perfect Well Think content s ...

. Originally formed in 2001, pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between

JSAT Corporation JSAT Corporation (JSAT) was the first private Japanese satellite operator, which owned the JSAT satellites, as well as operated and partially owned the N-Star with NTT DoCoMo. Its origins can be traced to the funding of Japan Communications ...

and

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 ind ...

for the launch of

Horizons-1 Horizons-1, also known as Galaxy 13, is a geostationary orbit, geostationary communications satellite operated by Intelsat and SKY Perfect JSAT (JSAT) which was designed and manufactured by Boeing Satellite Development Center, Boeing on the Boei ...

, it was renewed for

Horizons-2 Horizons-2 is a communications satellite owned by Horizons Satellite, a joint venture between SKY Perfect JSAT Group and Intelsat. Its orbital slot is located at 74° west longitude. Launch Horizons-2 was launched from the Guiana Space Centr ...

. JSAT later merged into the SKY Perfect JSAT Group and PanAmSat was acquired by Intelsat, but the companies continued with the relationship, with the order for

Horizons-3e Horizons-3e, also known as IS-H3e, is a high throughput geostationary communications satellite ordered by Horizons Satellite, a joint venture of Intelsat and SKY Perfect JSAT Group. The spacecraft is designed and manufactured by Boeing on the ...

. Both companies also launched a joint satellite,

Intelsat 15 Intelsat 15, also known as IS-15, is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat. Intelsat 15 was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, on a Star-2.4. It is located at 85° E longitude on the geostationary orbit. It was launched from Ba ...

JCSAT-85 Intelsat 15, also known as IS-15, is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat. Intelsat 15 was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, on a Star-2.4. It is located at 85° E longitude on the geostationary orbit. It was launched from Baikon ...

, but instead of the equal share agreement of this joint venture, JSAT owns a specific payload of 5 transponders out of the 22 K_u band transponders of the spacecraft.

History

On August 1, 2001,

announced an equal share

with

, called Horizons Satellite. On September 4, 2001, it ordered from

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

its first satellite,

/ Galaxy 13. It was a spacecraft with 24 C band and 24 K_u 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 trans ...

. It had a 10 kW power generation capacity and 15 years of expected life. On the same day of the satellite order, Boeing disclosed that it had received an parallel contract from PanAmSat, where the latter had exercised an existing option to launch Horizons-1 from its

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 ...

subsidiary. On October 22, 2002, JSAT and PanAmSat announced a joint sales agreement where JSAT's clients would gain access to

PAS 2 PAS or Pas may refer to: Companies and organizations * Pakistan Academy of Sciences * Pakistan Administrative Service * Pan Am Southern, a freight railroad owned by Norfolk Southern and Pan Am Railways * Pan American Silver, a mining company i ...

and

PAS 8 Intelsat 8 (formerly PAS-8) is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat located at 166° East of longitude, serving the Pacific Ocean market. Mission On 13 August 2012, it was replaced with Intelsat 19. During September 2012, it was co-lo ...

, while PanAmSat's would get

JCSAT-2A JCSAT-2A, known as JCSAT-8 before launch, is a geostationary communications satellite operated by SKY Perfect JSAT Group (JSAT) which was designed and manufactured by Boeing Satellite Systems on the BSS-601 platform. It has Ku-band and C-ban ...

and

JCSAT-3 JCSAT-3 was a geostationary communications satellite designed and manufactured by Hughes (now Boeing) on the HS-601 satellite bus. It was originally ordered by JSAT Corporation, which later merged into the SKY Perfect JSAT Group. It has a mix ...

. A week later, on October 28, Horizons Satellites obtained permission to operate in Japan. Horizons-1 was successfully launched on October 1, 2003 aboard 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 ...

rocket 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 ...

platform in the Pacific. On June 27, 2005, JSAT and PanAmSat announced that they were renewing the partnership by ordering a second satellite,

. This K_u band satellite would be positioned on the 74°West that belonged to PanAmSat. On August 30, 2005,

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

announced that Horizons Satellite had ordered a small satellite based on the

STAR-2 The STAR-2 Bus is a fully redundant, flight-proven, spacecraft bus designed for geosynchronous missions. It is a satellite platform, designed and developed by Thomas van der Heyden for the Indonesian Cakrawarta satellite program in the early 19 ...

platform, Horizons-2, for the PanAmSat licensed orbital slot at 74°West. It would carry 20 Ku band transponders, generate 3.5 kW of power, weight around and was expected to be launched in 2007. The August 2005 take over of PanAmSat by

, did not diminished the relationship and, in fact, strengthened the alliance. On December 21, 2007, Horizons Satellite used 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 ...

rocket to launch Horizons-2. And, outside of the Horizons Satellite, JCSAT and Intelsat launched the joint satellite

on November 30, 2009 aboard a

Zenit-3SLB The Zenit 3SLB or Zenit-3M is a Ukrainian expendable carrier rocket derived from the Zenit-2SB. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, which were designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Office. Produced at Yuzhmash, the rocket is a modified versi ...

. On November 4, 2015, JSAT and Intelsat made a joined statement that they would add a new member to their Horizons joint venture. The satellite, called Horizons 3e, would be based on the Intelsat Epic^NG platform, featuring an optimized C band and high throughput K_u band payload it would offer mobility and broadband connectivity services in the Asia-Pacific region. It was expected to use the 169°East orbital slot and launch by the second half of 2018. This would be the fourth joint satellite, along with the other two Horizons Satellite spacecraft, Horizons-1 and Horizons-2 and the separately co-owned JCSAT-85/Intelsat 15. Since this would be an investment within Horizons Satellite, it would not be considered a capital expenditure of the parent companies.

Horizons Fleet

It has two satellites on-orbit

and

, with a third,

planned for 2018.

References

{{Intelsat Communications satellite operators

History

Horizons Fleet

See also

References