AsiaStar is an American

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 operated by

1worldspace 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 ...

. 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 division of the French conglomerate Matra (Matra Espace) and ...

with

Alcatel Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

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 March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

, and used an Ariane 5G carrier rocket flying from

ELA-3 ELA-3 () is a launch complex at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. The complex was first used in June 1996 in support of the now retired Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespac ...

at the

Centre Spatial Guyanais The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

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

. 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; has relayed digital radio broadcasts to

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

. On 31 December 2009, Worldspace ceased broadcasting on the Asiastar satellite in line with its bankruptcy issues. However, as of 30 November 2010, two Free to Air (unencrypted) stations are still available, namely Sai Global Harmony and

Radio France International Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world ...

. 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 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