AsiaStar is an American

communications 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 ...

which was operated by 1worldspace. It was constructed by

Matra Marconi Space Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a Franco-British aerospace company. History Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the Lagardère Group ( Matra Espace) and the GEC ...

with Alcatel Space based on the Eurostar E2000+ bus design. Launch occurred on 21 March 2000, at 23:29:00 UTC. The launch was contracted by

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

, and used an

Ariane 5G 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 into ...

carrier rocket flying from

ELA-3 ELA-3 (french: Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 3, lit=Ariane Launch Complex 3), is a launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. ELA-3 is operated by Arianespace as part of the expendable launch system f ...

at the Centre Spatial Guyanais. The INSAT-3B satellite was launched on the same rocket. Following its launch and on-orbit testing, it was placed in geostationary orbit at 105.0° East, from where it provides mobile communications services to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. It carries three transponders, and has an expected on-orbit lifespan of 12 years. The satellite had a weight of 2777 kg, and 5.6 kW of power, and

three-axis stabilized Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle/satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, et ...

; has relayed digital radio broadcasts to

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...

. On 31 December 2009,

Worldspace 1worldspace, known for most of its existence simply as WorldSpace, is a defunct satellite radio network that in its heyday provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern, southern and northern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia w ...

ceased broadcasting on the Asiastar satellite in line with its bankruptcy issues. However, as of 30 November 2010, two

Free to Air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscriptio ...

(unencrypted) stations are still available, namely Sai Global Harmony and Radio France International. In 2010, the ownership of the AsiaStar satellite as well as other assets of the 1worlspace company were bought by Noah A. Samara (former CEO of 1worldspace) and by his new company Yazmi USA. The AsiaStar satellite was acquired by in late 2014 by New York Broadband LLC and used as an orbital placeholder for their planned Silkwave 1 (originally NYBBSat-1) satellite. As of 2020, Silkwave 1 has not been launched.

References

* * * Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2000 Satellites using the Eurostar bus {{communications-satellite-stub