Arianespace Raking In The Good News… GIOVE-B + BSAT-3b + Ariane 5

Preparations for the next Soyuz mission by Arianespace’s Starsem affiliate moved into a new phase with this week’s integration of the European GIOVE-B navigation satellite on its Fregat upper stage. The activity occurred at Starsem’s Upper Composite Integration Facility (UCIF), which is located inside the Site 112 building at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. The UCIF is one of three Starsem-operated clean room facilities housed in the Site 112 building, and it is the final stop for GIOVE-B before its transfer for integration with the Soyuz launcher. GIOVE-B will be the second spacecraft launched by Starsem in support of Europe’s continually developing Galileo satellite-based navigation system. A mission in December 2005 orbited GIOVE-A, which has been broadcasting Galileo signals from space since then. The two GIOVE satellites are designed to test novel key technologies for the Galileo system. They include the high-precision passive maser atomic clock and triple-channel transmission of navigation signals. Instruments aboard the satellites measure radiation and the spacecraft charging environment. One feature of GIOVE-B is its ability to transmit MBOC (multiplexed binary offset carrier) signals, which are in accordance with a recently-reached agreement by the European Union and the United States for their respective satellite navigation systems. The April 27 GIOVE-B launch will be Starsem’s 21st commercial mission since the company’s creation in 1996. Japanese operator Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation, known as B-SAT, has selected Arianespace to launch their BSAT-3b satellite. The announcement was made by Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall and B-SAT Corporation President & CEO Kazuo Takenaka during the visit of France’s Prime Minister to Tokyo. BSAT-3b will be orbited by an Ariane 5 in the second half of 2010 from the Guiana Space Center, in Kourou, French Guiana. BSAT-3b is the 7th satellite entrusted to the European launcher by B-SAT Corporation. Additionally, this will be the 25th Japanese satellite won by Arianespace from the 34 GTO commercial satellites that have been commercially accessible. BSAT-3b will be positioned at 110° E and will be optimized to provide direct-to-home broadcasts from geostationary orbit to subscribers throughout the Japanese archipelago—Tokyo, Japan The installation of the upper satellite passenger, Star One C2, has been completed by Arianespace for their heavy-lift Ariane 5 launch vehicle, scheduled for liftoff on April 18th at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. This spacecraft joined VINASAT-1, which was installed previously on the Ariane 5 during integration activity in the Final Assembly Building. (The photo at right shows Ariane 5’s payload fairing with Star One C2 being lowered over VINASAT-1). For its second launch of 2008, the Ariane 5 will be carrying a total payload of approximately 7,760 kg., of which more than 6,730 is the combined mass of Star One C2 and VINASAT-1 at liftoff. The remaining weight is represented by the payload adapters, SYLDA dispenser and other integration hardware.

Star One C2 will be the eighth Brazilian satellite to use the Ariane launcher. It will join the fleet of Brazil’s Star One telecommunications operator, and carries a payload of 28 C-band transponders, 16 Ku-band transponders, and 1 X-band transponder. The spacecraft is to provide communications, multimedia and broadband services for South America, and is based on Thales Alenia Space‘s Spacebus 3000B3 platform, which will operate from an orbital position of 70° W.

VINASAT-1 was built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems in Newton, Pennsylvania for the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation. This is the first Vietnamese telecommunications satellite. After its deployment by Ariane 5, it will be positioned at an orbital slot of 132 ° E. The satellite’s payload of 12 Ku-band and 8 C-band transponders will improve the nation’s communication networks infrastructure. The upcoming Arianespace mission will be 38th launch of an Ariane 5, and is the second of seven flights planned for the workhorse vehicle in 2008, the busiest year of activity since Ariane 5’s 1999 commercial introduction.