THAICOM 8 () is a Thai

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 ...

of the

THAICOM Thaicom Public Company Limited is a Thai satellite operator and provider of satellite and telecommunication services since 1991. The company operates a fleet of four satellites covering Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Thaicom is a subsidiary of Into ...

series, operated by Thaicom Public Limited Company, a subsidiary of

INTOUCH InTouch was a Chinese quality control company based in Shenzhen that was acquired by ''Asia Quality Focus'' in 2019. The company provided quality control services in factories across China to several foreign firms. History InTouch was founde ...

, and is considered to be the 8th

satellite headquartered in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Overview

Manufactured by

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 ...

, the THAICOM 8

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 ...

will serve Thailand, India, and Africa from the 78.5° East geostationary location. It is equipped with 24 active

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 ), because it is the lower part of the original NATO K 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 for sending

high-definition television High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

signals through the satellite to residential dwellings.

Launch

THAICOM 8 was approved for launch into orbit on 18 March 2014. It was launched at the

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

SLC-40 in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

on 27 May 2016, 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 ...

. The first stage of the

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

used to launch THAICOM 8 successfully landed on ASDS - Of Course I Still Love You. It was the fourth successful landing of a

Falcon 9 Full Thrust Falcon 9 Full Thrust (also known as Falcon 9 v1.2) is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle when reused and Heavy-lift launch vehicle when expended designed an ...

Reuse of the Falcon 9 First Stage

The B1023 first stage was later converted into a Falcon Heavy side booster, which performed a static fire test in calendar-week 20 of 2017. This first stage then continued to land again at the

Landing Zone 1 Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station used by SpaceX. They allow the company to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket or the two side boost ...

at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the Falcon Heavy maiden test flight.

References

External links

THAICOM 8 Information

THAICOM 8 mission overview at SpaceX

SpaceX Launch Webcast
{{Orbital launches in 2016 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Thaicom satellites SpaceX commercial payloads Spacecraft launched in 2016 2016 in Thailand Satellites using the GEOStar bus

Overview

Launch

Reuse of the Falcon 9 First Stage

See also

References

External links