JCSAT-110, also known as N-SAT 110, JCSAT-7, Superbird-5 and Superbird-D, is a Japanese geostationary

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Ear ...

which was operated by

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 ...

and Space Communications Corporation until both companies merged into

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 ...

in 2008. It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a

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 let ...

of 110° East, from where it is used to provide communications services to Japan.

Satellite description

The spacecraft was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin on the A2100-AX

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 opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus- ...

. It had a launch mass of with a dry mass of and a 13-year design life. As most satellites based on the A2100-AX platform, it uses a LEROS-1C liquid apogee engine (LAE) for

orbit raising In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

. When stowed for launch, the satellite was high. Its dual wing

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

gave a power generation capability of 8.3 kW at the end of its design life, with a span of when deployed. With antennas deployed, its width was . Its payload is composed of twenty-four 36 MHz

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 german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...

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 tran ...

with a

TWTA A traveling-wave tube (TWT, pronounced "twit") or traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA, pronounced "tweeta") is a specialized vacuum tube that is used in electronics to amplify radio frequency (RF) signals in the microwave range. The TWT belongs t ...

output power of 120

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s per channel. With its total bandwidth of 864 GHz, it is used primarily for multi-channel pay per view business.

History

In September 1997, both JCSAT and Space Communications Corporation (SCC) had requested the 110° East position. The Japanese government made both companies share the 110° East position, and thus they both made a joint order on 20 November 1998 for N-SAT 110 from Lockheed Martin. JCSAT used the JCSAT-7 designation for this satellite, while SCC used Superbird-5. On 6 October 2000 at 23:00 UTC, an Ariane-42L H10-3 successfully launched N-SAT 110 to a geostationary transfer orbit from

Centre Spatial Guyanais The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximatel ...

ELA-2 ELA-2, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 2 ( French for Ariane Launch Area 2), was a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. It was used by Arianespace for two Ariane 3 launches (V17 in 1986, V25 in 1988), the second Arian ...

. One hour later, at 00:04 UTC, on 7 October 2000, the first signals from the satellite were successfully received from the Australia ground station. On 14 October 2000, at around 03:00 UTC, N-SAT 110 reached the geostationary orbit. Once it was put into orbit, it was renamed as JCSAT-110 by JCSAT and Superbird-D by SCC. On 1 October 2008,

and Space Communications Corporation merged into

, and the satellite was known simply as JCSAT-110.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2000 Communications satellites of Japan Spacecraft launched in 2000 Satellites using the A2100 bus 2000 in Japan

Satellite description

History

See also

References