Egyptian Satellites Co SAE or Nilesat (; or , ) is a company and the name of a series of Egyptian

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 ...

s. It was established in 1996 by the

government of Egypt The politics of Egypt takes place within the framework of a republican semi-presidential system of government. The current political system was established following the 2013 Egyptian military coup d'état, and the takeover of President Abdel F ...

with the purpose of operating Egyptian

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

s and their associated

mission control center A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages spaceflight, space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the gr ...

and

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fr ...

s. The company is now listed on the

Egyptian Exchange The Egyptian Exchange (EGX), Egypt's stock exchange, comprises two exchanges, Cairo and Alexandria, both governed by the same board of directors and sharing the same trading, clearing and settlement systems. Presently, the chairman of the Egyptia ...

, though remains controlled by the government (c.75%) through the National Media Authority (40%), and other state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The company has two ground stations, a primary one in

6th of October City 6th of October ( ; ) is a city in the Giza Governorate of Egypt. It is a satellite city, located adjacent to Giza, and is part of the Greater Cairo region.

and a secondary ground station in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. The two ground stations were built by

EADS Astrium Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services ...

. Nilesat operates multiple

geosynchronous A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

communications satellites, all of which are stationed at 7 degrees West. Nilesat includes as of 17 April 2022 1091 video channels, most of which are

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 subscri ...

Nilesat 101

Nilesat 101 was launched by an

Ariane 4 The Ariane 4 was a European expendable rocket, expendable launch vehicle in the Ariane (rocket family), Ariane family, developed by the (CNES), the Government of France, French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). The manufacturi ...

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 rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

from Kourou,

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 ...

on 28 April 1998 at 22:53:00 UTC by the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

. It was manufactured by the European company

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 ...

(

Astrium Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services ...

) and started official broadcasting on 31 May 1998. The satellite had an expected lifetime of 12 years. At launch, the spacecraft had a Gross Liftoff Weight (GLOW) of 1,666 kg, which means it is loaded with propellant. The satellite was decommissioned in February 2013.

Nilesat 102

Nilesat 102 was launched by an Ariane 44LP

from Kourou,

on 17 August 2000 at 23:16 UTC by the

. It was manufactured by the European company

(

), and started official broadcasting on 12 September 2000. The satellite had an expected lifetime of 15 years. At launch, the spacecraft had a Gross Liftoff Weight (GLOW) of 1,827 kg. The mission was retired in June 2018.

Nilesat 103

Nilesat 103 satellite was a leased communications satellite. Nilesat and

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it has been the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Its subsidiary E ...

agreed in September 2005 to lease capacity on Eutelsat's Hot Bird 4 satellite after relocating it to 7° West and renaming it Atlantic Bird 4 (marketed as Nilesat 103). The satellite has been repositioned to this location in the second quarter of 2006 after the launch and entry into service of Eutelsat's Hot Bird 7A and Hot Bird 8 satellites. Nilesat 103 joined its two existing sister satellites Nilesat 101 and Nilesat 102 in providing Direct Broadcast Satellite (Direct to Home or DTH) digital TV channels, data transmission, turbo internet and multicasting applications to more than 15 million viewers in the North African and Middle East region. In April 2009 the satellite has been repositioned to 16° East as Eurobird 16.

Nilesat 104

The orbital slot at 7° West which was left by Nilesat 103 in 2009 has been replaced with the new Hot Bird 10, renamed as Atlantic Bird 4A. Some transponders aboard this satellite have been leased by Nilesat, functioning as Nilesat 104. In October 2011, Atlantic Bird 7 entered service and assumed this role as Nilesat 104 instead of Atlantic Bird 4A (which was moved to a different orbital position). In March 2012, Atlantic Bird 7 was renamed to Eutelsat 7 West A as part of Eutelsat's new nomenclature system.

Nilesat 104B

Nilesat has leased capacity on Eutelsat 8 West B and markets it as Nilesat 104B.

Nilesat 201

Nilesat selected Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy in May 2008 to build the Nilesat 201 satellite, which was launched on 4 August 2010 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket. The Nilesat 201 satellite, which was launched into Nilesat's 7° West slot, is built on the Thales Alenia Space Spacebus-4000B2 platform and weighs 3,129 kilograms. It carries 24 Ku-band transponders and four transponders in Ka-band for direct-to-home television, radio and data-transmissions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Nilesat 301

Built by

Thales Alenia 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 ...

and launched by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

on 8 June 2022, the Egyptian satellite will be stationed at 7.0° west at geostationary transfer orbit. SpaceX successfully executed the furthest downrange landing of a Falcon 9 booster on this mission by landing away from the launch site.

References

{{Authority control 1998 establishments in Egypt Communications satellite operators Telecommunications companies of Egypt Space program of Egypt Government-owned companies of Egypt Egyptian companies established in 1998 Telecommunications companies established in 1998 Satellite series Conglomerate companies of Egypt 6th of October (city)