Arianespace has won the tender to launch the Arsat-1 satellite on behalf of nascent Argentine satellite operator ArSat by mid-2012.
The payload, which weighs some 2,900 kg, will be placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher…
Arianespace has won the tender to launch the Arsat-1 satellite on behalf of nascent Argentine satellite operator ArSat by mid-2012.
The payload, which weighs some 2,900 kg, will be placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Centre.
The satellite will be fitted with 12 36 MHz, eight 54 MHz and four 72 MHz transponders, all of which are in the Ku band. It will offer a wide range of telecommunications, data transmission, telephone and television services, mainly across South America’s southern cone.
The satellite is being built by the Argentine company INVAP, with Astrium and Thales Alenia Space as leading equipment suppliers. This will be the second time that the French company has launched an Argentine satellite, having sent Nahuel 1A into space in 1997.
ArSat chairman and CEO Pablo Tognetti welcomed the partnership with Arianespace, which he said had offered the best ratio of price and quality.
Created by the Argentine government in 2006, ArSat aims to develop geostationary orbital slots, and fill them with homegrown satellites. The group, which currently holds Argentine orbital slots 81W and 72W, is well on its way to providing service to customers using satellite capacity obtained through strategic and commercial agreements with global operators.
Earlier this month, the Andean development corporation Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) approved a plan to contribute US$36m to ArSat.
CAF stated that the US$36m will be used “to support design, construction and placing in orbit of a fleet of communications satellites.” CAF estimates that the total cost of the project will be US$723m, covering the construction and placing in orbit of a fleet of three geostationary satellites to be launched between 2011 and 2014.
In mid-2008, the Argentine government signed a construction and launch contract for ArSat’s first spacecraft, ArSat-1, which is due to be launched by the National Institute of Applied Research by year-end 2011. This first satellite was expected to cost approximately US$270m, with the state contributing US$54m and the remainder secured via loans from the Inter-American Development Bank.
Third time lucky for Ariane 5
Arianespace successfully launched its Ariane 5 rocket on June 26, after two aborted attempts earlier that week.
The French launch provider had delayed the mission first because of an anomaly involving the launcher subsystem, and then because of fears over an atypical pressurisation value measured on the rocket’s main cryogenic stage.
Once it did take off from the ELA-3 launch site in French Guiana, the mission carried the Arabsat-5A and COMS satellites into geostationary transfer orbits to cover the Middle East and South Korea, respectively.
The delay echoes similar caution by Arianespace on its last Ariane 5 launch when the launch of SES’ Astra 3B and the Germany military’s COMSATB2 2 was delayed by two months. That postponement prompted Arianespace to establish a task force and a quality audit to investigate both the specific problem that arose and any underlying technical problems afflicting the flight.
Arianespace chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said that the delays were testament to the company’s “policy of quality”, adding that there remained a strong backlog of satellites to be orbited. These include, he said, 34 satellites for launch to geostationary orbit, along with six Ariane 5 missions with the Automated Transfer Vehicle, and 17 launches to be performed by Soyuz. He concluded by pointing out that so far this year, Arianespace has signed nine new contracts.
The company previously indicated that it was hoping to launch a total of seven missions in 2010. The next Ariane 5 mission, carrying satellites for RASCOM-QAF 1R and NILESAT 201, is due to take off on August 3.
