SES-5 (also known as Astra 4B and Sirius 5) is a commercial geostationary

communication satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. ...

operated by SES It was launched on 9 July 2012. The launch was arranged by International Launch Services (ILS).

History

In October 2008, SES Sirius AB of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

(then 90% owned by SES and prior to 2003 called Nordic Satellite AB) ordered the Sirius 5 satellite from Space Systems/Loral. Following full acquisition by SES in 2010, SES Sirius was renamed SES Astra (a subsidiary of SES) and the satellite renamed Astra 4B. In 2011, SES Astra was merged back into SES and the satellite renamed SES-5.''SES adopts new management structure''
Broadband TV News. 2 May 2011. Accessed 27 May 2022

Satellite description

It was constructed by Space Systems/Loral, and is based on the SSL 1300

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

. It carries 24 C-band and 36 Ku-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 covers

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, Europe,

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

EGNOSS payload

SES 5 is also carrying a hosted payload

L-band The L band is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designation for the range of Frequency, frequencies in the radio spectrum from 1 to 2 gigahertz (GHz). This is at the top end of the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, at t ...

navigation terminal for the executive commission of the 27-nation

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The terminal operated as part of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) system, which provides verification of

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

(GPS) navigation signals through the use of satellites in geostationary orbit.

Launch

Sirius 5 was the original name of the SES-5 satellite. SES-5 that was launched on 9 July 2012, at 18:38:30 UTC from

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

, Site 81/24 and is now co-located with Astra 4A ( Sirius 4) at 5° East. This satellite provides a similar European and African coverage as Astra 4A.

References

External links