Tag Archives: Ku-Band

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched from the spaceport in French Guiana during the early hours of 5 December 2018.

Arianespace will carry out a Launch Readiness Review (LRR) at the Guiana Space Centre on 3 December 2018 of the Ariane 5 satellite launch vehicle that will loft the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) GSAT-11 communications satellite and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute's GEO-KOMPSAT-2A meteorological satellite, and so authorize the start of operations for the final launch countdown.

It has been a busy few weeks in the Middle Eastern satellite and space sector, with developments and activities taking place from Morocco to Iran, and all points in between. The following is a roundup of the regional space and satellite news that was not previously covered in-depth by SpaceWatch.MiddleEast.

SpaceX successfully launched the Es’hail-2 satellite for Qatar’s Es’hailsat on Thursday, 15 November 2018, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States. Liftoff occurred at 3:46 p.m. EST, or 20:46 UTC, and the satellite was deployed to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) about 32 minutes after launch.

MzansiSat, a New Space satellite broadband company located in Stellenbosch, South Africa, is looking to launch and operate its own Geostationary orbit communications satellite, to be called MzansiSat-1, by 2022 in order to provide low-cost satellite broadband Internet across Africa in what its Chief Operating Officer, Victor Stephanopoli, calls a "patchy" telecommunications sector on the continent.

IEC Telecom and two of its long-standing strategic partners, UAE's Yahsat and its subsidiary Thuraya, are offering new products, services, and connectivity services at the 2018 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

Qatar’s Es’hailsat is expected to have its Es’hail-2 communications satellite launched on Thursday, 15 November 2018, on board a SpaceX Falcon-9 satellite launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Telesat has announced that its new Telstar 18 VANTAGE high throughput satellite (HTS) is fully operational at 138 degrees East and has entered commercial service. Telstar 18 VANTAGE was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 10 September 2018 and will serve growing demand for mobility, enterprise, and telecom services across the Asia-Pacific region.

Angola's National Space Programme Management Office (GGPEN) has revealed that it is using capacity on third-party communications satellites paid for by Russia as part of a compensation package for the failure in orbit of AngoSat-1 four months after its launch in late 2017, according to a report in the French-language technology news service Agence Ecofin.

Azercosmos, the national satellite operator of Azerbaijan, and Intelsat, one of the largest commercial satellite communications operators in the world, announced on 26 September 2018 the successful launch of the Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38 communications satellite aboard an Arianespace Ariane-5 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.