The Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (''Bangabandhu-1'') is the first

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

s and broadcasting satellite. It is named after the father of the nation,

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali polit ...

. It was manufactured by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufactur ...

and launched on 12 May 2018. The satellite was the first payload launched by a

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal o ...

Falcon 9 Block 5

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and sys ...

Background

The project is being implemented by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) working hand-in-hand with US-based Space Partnership International, LLC. The government-owned Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited, BSCL (Formerly known as Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited, BCSCL) was formed with the aim of operating the satellite. The satellite will expand Ku-band coverage over all of Bangladesh and its nearby waters including the Bay of Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, eastern Indian states (West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland,

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

) and Indonesia. This is coupled with C-band coverage for all aforementioned areas. Bangabandhu-1 was initially planned to be launched on an Arianespace

Ariane 5 ECA 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 ...

rocket on 16 December 2017 to celebrate the

Victory day of Bangladesh Victory Day ( bn, বিজয় দিবস ''Bijôy Dibôsh'') is a national holiday in Bangladesh celebrated on 16 December to commemorate the defeat of the Pakistan Armed Forces in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and the Independence ...

. Following the lack of firm guarantee from Arianespace for that date, BTRC instead chose the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The satellite is now located at the 119.1° East longitude geostationary slot.

Construction

Bangabandhu-1 was designed and manufactured by

. The total cost of the satellite was projected to be 248 million US dollars in 2015 (Tk 19.51 billion), financed via a $188.7 million loan from

HSBC Holdings plc HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...

. The satellite carries a total of 40 Ku-band and C-band transponders with a capacity of 1600 megahertz and a predicted life span to exceed 15 years.

Map of satellite's position

Bangabandhu-1 Satellitle Position and Coverage

Launch

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Mission (42025498972)

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 was launched at 20:14 UTC on 12 May 2018, on a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

launch vehicle at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 196 ...

, USA. It was the first payload to be launched using the new SpaceX Block 5 model of the rocket.

Aborted launch

The satellite was originally planned to launch 10 May 2018. However the rocket carrying the payload triggered an automatic abort as it entered internal power and control at T-58 seconds. The rocket launch was pushed back 24 hours, and it was finally launched on 11 May 2018.

Operation

The satellite uses ground control stations built by Thales Alenia Space with its partner Spectra primary ground station in Gazipur. Secondary ground station is at Betbunia, Rangamati The first test signal after launch was received by the operators on 12 May 2018.

References

External links

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Bangabandhu-1 (BD-1) Communication Satellite - Aerospace-technology.com

A short documentary on Bangabandhu Satellite-1

Mission details

Benefits of Bangabandhu Satellite 1

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 launch Video
{{Orbital launches in 2018 2018 in Bangladesh Spacecraft launched in 2018 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites of Bangladesh SpaceX commercial payloads Memorials to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Telecommunications in Bangladesh Satellites using the Spacebus bus