Superbird-C2, known as Superbird-7 before launch, is a geostationary

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

operated by JSAT Corporation and designed and manufactured by

Mitsubishi Electric is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1921 as a spin-off from the electrical machinery manufacturing d ...

(MELCO) on the DS2000 satellite bus. It had a launch weight of , a 15-year design life and was the first commercial communications satellite built in Japan. Its payload is composed of 28 Ku-band transponders with a total bandwidth of 828

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

. It was originally ordered by Space Communications Corporation (SCC), owned by the Mitsubishi Group keiretsu, also the parent company of MELCO, but it was later merged and absorbed by JSAT Corporation. By the time of the actual launch it was a fully used Superbird-C2 as a replacement for Superbird-C to provide communications services to Japan,

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and the

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

History

In April 2005, Space Communications Corporation (SCC) issued an Request for proposal (RFP) for Superbird-7, a spacecraft destined to replace the aging Superbird-C. On 28 June 2005,

(MELCO) got first contract negotiations right, and on31 October 2005, SCC and MELCO successfully concluded the contract negotiation. On 1 November 2005, SCC makes the orders to MELCO official for the first commercial communications satellite to be built in Japan, the Superbird-7. The contract called for on orbit delivery, with MELCO handling every detail from construction to launch procurement and on orbit testing for final hand over to the customer. It was not only the first SCC order for a commercial communications satellite built in Japan, but the first such order ever. This event meant that MELCO officially entered the market. Superbird-7 was expected to weight around , have 28 Ku-band transponders, a design life of 15 years and be launched on the first quarter of 2008. It was going to be renamed as Superbird-C2 once in orbit and be stationed on the 144° East where it would replace the aging Superbird-C. It was expected to offer its services in Japan, Eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean. In March 2008, SCC becomes a fully owned subsidiary of SKY Perfect JSAT Group. On the SKY Perfect JSAT board meeting of 6 August 2008, it was resolved to merge SKY Perfect Communications, JSAT Corporation and Space Communications Corporation. The merger would see SKY Perfect absorb JSAT and SCC and both legacy companies dissolved. Thus, by the time of launch, Superbird-7 was a JSAT spacecraft. Superbird-7 was successfully launched along AMC-21 by an

Ariane 5 ECA Ariane 5 is a retired European Heavy-lift launch vehicle, heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver p ...

on 14 August 2008, at 20:44 UTC. It separated from the spacecraft at 21:09 UTC and less than an hour later, at 22:03 UTC, it had already spread its solar panels. After the successful launch, Superbird-7 was renamed as Superbird-C2. On 17 October 2008, MELCO announced that they had performed the final handover of the spacecraft to JSAT. They had performed all orbital maneuvers to its correct orbital slot on the 144° East position, had completed the on-orbit tests and performed the necessary acceptance tests. This concluded the commission phase and the spacecraft was put into service. On 1 August 2012, JSAT and Panasonic Avionics Corporation announced an agreement for under which Panasonic would commit to use the Superbird-C2 beams for its eXConnect in-flight Internet connectivity service in South East Asia.

References

{{Mitsubishi Electric Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2008 Satellites using the DS2000 bus Mitsubishi Electric products, services and standards Communications satellites of Japan 2008 in Japan Satellites made by Mitsubishi Electric

History

See also

References