Brasilsat B3 is a Brazilian

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 ...

. It was launched on 4 February 1998 by an Ariane 44LP carrier rocket, as part of a dual-payload launch with Inmarsat-3 F5. It was built by

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace company, aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes ...

, based on the

HS-376 The Boeing 376 (sometimes referred to as the BSS-376, and previously as the HS-376) is a communications satellite bus introduced in 1978 by Hughes Space and Communications Company. It was a spin-stabilized bus, a successor to Hughes HS-333. ...

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 ...

. It operates by

Star One Star One was an Indian pay television channel based in Mumbai and owned by Star TV, with worldwide distribution handled by Fox International Channels. Launched on 1 November 2004, Star One was launched in the UK on Sky in November 2006. Sta ...

, a subsidiary of

Embratel Embratel is a major Brazilian telecommunications company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. The company was the long distance arm of Telebras until it was bought by the U.S. company MCI Communications for 2.65 billion reais during the 1998 bre ...

.Kreb's, Gunte
Brasilsat B 1, 2, 3, 4
''Gunter's Space Page''. Retrieved 2016-12-09.

Objectives

The Brasilsat B3 was launched to meet the great demand of the Brazilian market and to bring satellite communication to some cities in the

Amazon Region The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

, which still did not have access to satellite services; these locations were for the first time connected to Brazil and the world. In addition, the B3 unveiled the Brasilsat B2, which has now been used in open or pay-TV broadcasts, telephony services and data transmission.

History

Brasilsat is the name of a group of Brazilian satellites destined to provide communications via satellites, mainly to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. In February 1998, the Brasilsat B3 satellite was launched, currently located at 92 degrees west longitude, in an inclined orbit where it meets the growing demand for telephony from several operators, mainly in the interior of Brazil. The satellite is one of the pioneers to transmit digital signal, with 100% of the programming being displayed in the new system. Brasilsat B3 coverage is national and the channels that were broadcast by the satellite were mostly

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 subscript ...

. Brasilsat B3 was the third satellite launched from Brazil's second generation of communications satellites, which are the result of joint engineering and manufacturing efforts in the US and Brazil. The new series of satellites was called "Brasilsat B'.

, a Brazilian

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

s company, signed a contract in August 1990 for the construction of the first two satellites of the series,

Brasilsat B1 Brasilsat B1 is a Brazilian communications satellite launched on August 10, 1994, by an Ariane rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A r ...

and Brasilsat B2. In December 1995, with new satellites in orbit and unable to meet customer demand, Embratel decided to launch a third satellite, Brasilsat B3. The fourth and last satellite of the series, Brasilsat B4, was ordered in June 1998. Brasilsat B3 was operated directly by Embratel until the end of 2000, when Star One, a subsidiary of that company was formed and assigned to manage the former fleet of Embratel satellites. After the satellite was launched in February 1998, it was placed in the orbital position of 65 degrees west longitude for testing, where it remained until April of the same year when it was moved to 84 degrees west, remained until August 2008, when it was transferred to 75 degrees west and Brasilsat B3 remained in this position in normal

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 ...

until April 2012, when it was placed in inclined orbit. The satellite was moved to 92 degrees west in January 2013, where it remains currently in inclined orbit. Its replacement in the orbital position of 75 degrees west to continue with the radio and TV broadcasts was the

Star One C3 Star One C3 is a communications satellite operated by Star One, a subsidiary of Embratel. It was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation based on the STAR-2 satellite bus, and was launched on 10 November 2012 21:05 UTC by an Ariane 5ECA carrier r ...

satellite, which was launched in late 2012, and is covering Brazil and neighboring countries in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

External links

Channels of the Brasilsat B3

Satélite Brasilsat B3

References

{{Orbital launches in 1998 Satellites using the HS-376 bus Star One satellites