Intelsat 3R (formerly PAS-3R) 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 ...

serving the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

market. It is 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 ...

and located at 43° West

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

Satellite description

Hughes Aircraft Corporation constructed the satellite based on the HS-601 satellite bus, having a mass at launch of , which decreased to around when it was operational. The spacecraft had 20 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders. Its two

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

spanned and generated 4.7 kW of power when the spacecraft first entered service. The power was expected to drop to around 4.3 kW by the end of the vehicle's operational life, i.e., 15 years.

Launch

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 ...

launched PAS-3R using an Ariane 4

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 ...

, flight number V82, in the Ariane 44L H10-3 configuration. The launch occurred on 12 January 1996 at 23:10:00 UTC from ELA-2 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 ...

, at Kourou in

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

Intelsat 3R

Intelsat 3R was launched in January 1996 and operated by

PanAmSat PanAmSat Corporation was a satellite service provider headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1984 by Reynold "Rene" Anselmo, it operated a fleet of communications satellites used by the entertainment industry, news a ...

until it merged with Intelsat in 2006. The spacecraft and the rest of PanAmSat's fleet were renamed on 1 February 2007.

Decommissioning

Intelsat 3R was removed from

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 ...

in August 2011 and was placed into graveyard orbit.

References

Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites using the BSS-601 bus Satellite television Spacecraft launched in 1996 Intelsat satellites {{communications-satellite-stub