Intelsat 15, also known as IS-15, is a

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 ...

owned by

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

. Intelsat 15 was built by

Orbital Sciences Corporation 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 ...

, on a Star-2.4. It is located at 85° E longitude on the

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 ...

. It was launched from

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

to a

geosynchronous transfer orbit In space mission design, a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical type of geocentric orbit, usually with a perigee as low as low Earth orbit (LEO) and an apogee as high as geostationary orbit ...

on 30 November 2009 by a

Zenit-3SLB The Zenit 3SLB or Zenit-3M was a Ukrainian expendable carrier rocket derived from the Zenit-2SB. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets, which were designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Office. Produced at Yuzhmash, the rocket was a modifie ...

launch vehicle. It has 22 active K_u 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 ...

, plus eight spares. Five of those transponders are owned and operated by

SKY Perfect JSAT Group The SKY Perfect JSAT Group is a Japanese corporate group that claims to be Asia's largest satellite communication and multi-channel pay TV company. It owns the SKY PerfecTV! satellite broadcasting service and the SKY Perfect Well Think content s ...

under the name JCSAT-85.

Satellite description

Intelsat 15 is a 3 axis stabilized

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 ...

based on the Star-2.4

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 weighed at launch, had a dry mass of , and a design life 15 years. It had a power availability dedicated to the payload of 4.6 kW, due to its multi-junction

GaAs Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circui ...

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s. It also had two 4840

watt hour A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a SI unit, non-SI Units of measurement, unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. ...

Li-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy d ...

for surviving the solar eclipses. The satellite used a

bipropellant The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into ...

propulsion system with an IHI BT-4 Liquid Apogee Engine for orbit circularization and thrusters and

reaction wheel A reaction wheel (RW) is an electric motor attached to a flywheel, which, when its rotation speed is changed, causes a counter-rotation proportionately through conservation of angular momentum. A reaction wheel can rotate only around its center ...

s for station keeping and

attitude control Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...

. It was filled with enough propellant for 15 years, but due to the efficient launch and transfer 17 are expected. Its payload is composed two deployable dual grid reflectors, plus one deck mounted reflector. They are fed by 22 active K_u band

transponder 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 ...

s, plus eight spares. Intelsat uses 17 transponders, which have a bandwidth of twenty 36 MHz transponder equivalents. Its footprint is arranged in a Russia beam and a Middle East beam.

owns five physical transponders under the name JCSAT-85, four have a bandwidth of 36 MHz and the other one has 72 MHz. JSCAT-85 footprint is arranged in two beams, West IOR Beam, covering middle East and the Arabic Sea, and East IOR Beam, covering the Eastern Asia coast and Pacific Ocean.

History

On April 2, 2007,

JSAT Corporation JSAT Corporation (JSAT) was the first private Japanese satellite operator, which owned the JSAT satellites, as well as operated and partially owned the N-Star with NTT DoCoMo. Its origins can be traced to the funding of Japan Communications S ...

(now

) announced an agreement to purchase a payload consisting of five transponders on the yet to be built Intelsat 15. Intelsat and JSAT had already collaborated on the Horizons-1 and Horizons-2 satellites. The satellite, also known as IS-15, would provide services to the Asia-Pacific, Indian Ocean and Middle East regions from the 85°E longitude on the

, where it would replace Intelsat 709. It would have 22 K_u band transponders in total and a design life of 15 years. The JSAT payload would be known as JCSAT-85. On May 1, 2007,

(now

Orbital ATK Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and de ...

) announced that it had been awarded a contract to manufacture Intelsat 15. It would be based on the STAR-2

, generate 4.6 kW of power for its 22-transponder K_u band payload and had an expected launch date of early 2009. On February 26, 2008,

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...

announce a contract with Intelsat to launch two satellites manufactured by Orbital Corporation, Intelsat 15 and Intelsat 16. The contract was itself a renegotiation for repurpose two already existing reservation by Intelsat with Sea Launch for two satellites to these new spacecraft. They were expected to be launched by the

Land Launch Land Launch refers to a service product of Sea Launch, Sea Launch SA. There is no entity or company called Land Launch. Sea Launch created the Land Launch offering to address lighter satellites directly into geosynchronous orbit or into Geostationa ...

service, which used

rockets from the

in Kazakhstan, during 2009. Between October 27 and November 5, 2009 Intelsat 15 was processed in the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On November 6, it was filled with propellant. On November 24, 2009, JSAT announced that the launch of Intelsat 15 was expected on November 29 at 1:00 UTC. But during the launch attempt on November 29, the automatic prelaunch issued an abort command. But the launch committee agreed to make a second attempt on the next day. On November 30, 2009, at 21:00 UTC, the Zenit-3SLB successfully launched Intelsat 15, from

Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 45 Site 45 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome used to be a Zenit rocket launch site consisting of two pads, both of which are currently inactive. It used to be the launch site for all Soviet and Russian government Zenit launches, along with a commercial laun ...

. After a six and a half hour mission, the DM-3SLB successfully separated the spacecraft and at 03:28 UTC, first signals from spacecraft were received. The launch put the satellite with margins of its planned

with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

of 10,286 km, an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

of 35,790 km and a 12° inclination to the Equator.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2009 Intelsat satellites Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellite television Spacecraft launched in 2009 Satellites using the GEOStar bus