Intelsat 23 is a

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 ...

run by Intelsat which will provide communications services for the Americas, Western Europe and Africa. It is in a geosynchronous orbit located at 53° west and will replace Intelsat 707. It was built by

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

and has a designed life of 15 years.

Satellite

Intelsat 23 is one of a series of Intelsat communications satellites which are in geosynchronous orbit so that they are always located over the same part of the earth. It will be located over the equator at 53° west and is intended to replace Intelsat 707, which was launched in 1996. The satellite was built by Orbital Sciences using their GEOstar-2 bus. It has 24 C band circular polarized

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 tran ...

covering the Americas and Western Europe, and 15 linear polarized Ku band transponders covering Latin America. The satellite has 32 C band transponders and 19 Ku band transponders in total to provide for redundancy. Both antennae are 2.5m x 2.7m.

Launch

Intelsat 23 was launched by

International Launch Services International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) is a joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Angara and Proton rocket launch services. Proton launches take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan while Angara is l ...

on 14 October 2012. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome launchpad 81/24 by a

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka ...

rocket with a

Briz-M The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M (russian: Бриз-К, КM and M meaning ''Breeze-K, KM and M'') are Russian liquid-propellant rocket orbit insertion upper stages manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and used ...

upper stage. The Briz-M upper stage used was the Phase III type with two 80 litre fuel tanks. It was launched at 08:37 UTC, which is an unusual daytime launch for a Proton, and is intended to deliver the satellite to the correct orbit in nine and a half hours. The first stage of the Proton burned for two minutes before being jettisoned. The second stage then burned for three and a half minutes. The third stage of the Proton burned for 4 minutes and 14 seconds delivering the satellite and the Briz-M upper stage into a

sub-orbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital re ...

trajectory. The Briz-M made four scheduled burns with coasting stages in between to transfer the satellite into circular orbit, then an intermediate orbit, then Geostationary transfer orbit before delivering it to the correct orbit. The launch was the first Proton-M/Briz-M launch since the failed launch of

Ekspress-MD2 Ekspress-MD2 is a Russian communications satellite which was lost due to a launch failure on 6 August 2012. Equipped with eight C-band transponders and 1 L-band transponder, it was intended to be located in geostationary orbit at a longitude o ...

and

Telkom-3 Telkom-3 is an Indonesian communications satellite which failed to reach its target orbit due to a launch failure on 6 August 2012. It was built by ISS Reshetnev for Indonesian telecommunications provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia. It was b ...

on 6 August 2012. Those satellites were lost due to a problem with the Briz-M which did not complete the third burn due to a fuel problem.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2012 Intelsat satellites Spacecraft launched by Proton rockets Spacecraft launched in 2012 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit