The Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite or SGDC (in Portuguese: ''Satélite Geoestacionário de Defesa e Comunicações Estratégicas'') is a Brazilian

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 altitude ...

communication satellite that was built by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufacture ...

in France, it was placed in the orbital position of 75 degrees west longitude and will be operated by

Telebrás Telebras is a Brazilian telecommunications company which was the state-owned monopoly telephone system. It was broken up in July 1998 into twelve separate companies, nicknamed the 'Baby Bras' companies, that were auctioned to private bidders. The ...

selected

Viasat Viasat may refer to: *Viasat (American company) (founded 1986) * Viasat (Nordic television service) (founded 1991) * Danish 1st Division, officially Viasat Divisionen, second-highest football league in Denmark * Viasat Cup, 2006 Danish football to ...

as a partner to help build the associated ground system. The satellite was based on the Spacebus-4000 platform and its life expectancy will be 18 years. The satellite was successfully launched into space on May 4, 2017, at 21:52 UTC, by means of an

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

vehicle from the French company Arianespace, launched from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou,

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

, together with the

Koreasat 7 Koreasat 7 (also known as Mugunghwa 7) is a South Korean communications satellite operated by KT SAT, a subsidiary of KT Corporation. Thales Alenia Space was contracted in 2014 to build both it and Koreasat 5A. Koreasat 7A was launched into geos ...

. It had a launch mass of 12,800 pounds (5,800 kg). The SGDC will be equipped with 50 Ka band transponders and 5 X band transponders to provide broadband internet and communications to the Brazilian government and the

Brazilian Armed Forces The Brazilian Armed Forces ( pt, Forças Armadas Brasileiras, ) are the unified military forces of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Consisting of three service branches, it comprises the Brazilian Army (including the Brazilian Army Aviatio ...

. A backup satellite, SGDC-2, was initially planned for launch no earlier than 2022. As of July 2021, the procurement of this satellite has been delayed indefinitely due to concerns over cost and the legality of the procurement agreement.

References

2017 in Brazil Spacecraft launched in 2017 May 2017 events in South America Communications satellites of Brazil {{Brazil-spacecraft-stub

See also

References