Apstar 6 is a

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 ...

built by

Alcatel Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

, a subsidiary of

Alcatel Alcatel SA was a French industrial conglomerate active between 1963 and 2006. It has roots to ''Compagnie Générale d’Electricité'' (CGE), a conglomerate founded in 1898 as an early state owned cable and telephone equipment company that lat ...

, and was boosted into orbit on April 12, 2005, by Long March 3B launcher from

Xichang Satellite Launch Center The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...

in China. It provides APT Satellite, a satellite operator in the

Asia Pacific Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

region, with broadband media and television services. It is fitted with 38 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 trans ...

and 12 K_u band transponders. China is covered with a dedicated high power K_u band beam for

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

multimedia transmission. It is the second model of the

Spacebus 4000 Spacebus is a satellite bus produced at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in France by Thales Alenia Space. Spacebuses are typically used for geostationary communications satellites, and seventy-four have been launched since development started ...

. The transponders have a reduced

C-band C band may refer to: * C band (IEEE), a radio frequency band from 4 to 8 GHz * C band (infrared), an infrared band from 1530 to 1565 nm (roughly 200 THz) * C band (NATO) The NATO C-band is the obsolete designation given to the radio frequen ...

receiving dish over a wide

footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...

, which extends across India, China and Australia. It is significant in enhancing cooperation between Alcatel Space and China as a - to the

SINOSAT Sino Satellite Communications Co., Ltd. known also as SinoSat is a Chinese company. It provided satellite communications through a pair of communications satellites in geostationary orbit. Their two satellites were SinoSat 1 and SinoSat 3. A th ...

satellite. Apstar 6 was built as an

ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a set of U.S. Department of State regulations that control the export of defense and military technologies to safeguard national security and further its foreign policy objectives. Overvie ...

-free satellite, containing no restricted U.S. components. Under the U.S.

regulations, U.S. satellite components may not be exported for launch on Chinese rockets. However, the U.S. Department of State did not accept the ITAR-free status of these satellites and fined the US company

Aeroflex Aeroflex Inc. was an American company which produced test equipment, RF and microwave integrated circuits, components and systems used for wireless communications. Its headquarters were located in Plainview, New York. In May 2014, Aeroflex was ...

$8 million for selling ITAR components. In 2013, Thales Alenia discontinued its ITAR-free satellite line.

References

External links

Alcatel press release APT website
* Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2005 Satellites using the Spacebus bus Communications satellites of China 2005 in China Spacecraft launched by Long March rockets {{Communications-satellite-stub