AsiaSat 2 was a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

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 ...

, which was owned, and was initially operated, by the Hong Kong–based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company. It was positioned in

geostationary orbit 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 orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

at a longitude of 17° East of the

Greenwich Meridian The Greenwich meridian is a prime meridian, a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. From 1884 to 1974, the Greenwich meridian was the international standard prime meridian, ...

, on lease to Spacecom. It spent most of its operational life at 100.5° East, from where it was used to provide fixed satellite services, including broadcasting, audio and data transmission, to

Asia 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 ...

and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

Satellite description

AsiaSat 2 was built by Astro Space, which by the time of its launch had become part of

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

. It is based on the AS-7000

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 ...

. At launch, it had a mass of , and a design life of thirteen years. It carries twenty six C-band and eight

Ku-band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally ), because it is the lower part of the original NATO K 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 ...

Launch

The launch of AsiaSat 2 was contracted to the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), and used a

Long March 2E The Long March 2E, also known as the Chang Zheng 2E, CZ-2E and LM-2E, was a Chinese orbital carrier rocket from the Long March 2 family. The Long March 2E was a three-stage carrier rocket that was designed to launch commercial communications sa ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

with a FG-46 upper stage. It was the maiden flight of the FG-46, and the first Chinese launch since the Apstar 2 failure, which killed a number of villagers in January 1995. The launch was conducted from Xichang Launch Area 2 (LA-2) at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre at 11:30:05

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on 28 November 1995. The launch had previously been delayed twice, first from December 1994 due to the failure of Telstar 402, which was based on the same satellite bus as AsiaSat 2, and subsequently whilst the Apstar 2 launch failure was investigated. Since the

launch vehicle had experienced two failures in five launches, AsiaSat 2 had to pay a 27% premium for

satellite insurance Satellite insurance is a specialized branch of aviation insurance in which, as of 2000, about 20 insurers worldwide participate directly. Others participate through reinsurance contracts with direct providers. It covers three risks: relaunching t ...

instead of the usual 17–20%. Although the satellite was delivered to the correct orbit, the launch was a partial failure. Excessive acceleration during the launch caused a misalignment of the antenna feed horns on the Ku-band transponders, reducing the satellite's coverage area. AsiaSat filed an insurance claim for US$58 million.

AMOS-5i

AsiaSat 2 was replaced by AsiaSat 5 in 2009, and in September 2009 it was leased to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i operator Spacecom Ltd. It was subsequently moved to a longitude of 17° East, and in January 2010 it began operations for Spacecom, who refer to it as AMOS-5i. Spacecom intended to operate it until AMOS-5 was launched in 2011, however during a stationkeeping manoeuvre in August 2010 they discovered that it was carrying less fuel than they had expected, meaning that it would have to be retired before the launch of its replacement.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1995 Spacecraft launched in 1995 AsiaSat satellites Spacecraft launched by Long March rockets

Satellite description

Launch

AMOS-5i

See also

References