ILS has successfully launched Inmarsat’s second satellite for its next-generation Global Xpress constellation to give the British MSS operator’s new Ka-band system coverage of the Americas and the Atlantic.
Inmarsat-5 F2, the second of three…
ILS has successfully launched Inmarsat’s second satellite for its next-generation Global Xpress constellation to give the British MSS operator’s new Ka-band system coverage of the Americas and the Atlantic.
Inmarsat-5 F2, the second of three spacecraft for the project, was lofted from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 1 February by a Proton rocket, its fifth successful launch since it returned to flight last September.
The F2 is expected to reach its slot in geo-synchronous elliptical orbit in late March, and then testing will begin ahead of a full operational launch later this year.
The launch is a milestone for the US$1.6bn Global Xpress project, which marks a strategic shift for Inmarsat into high throughput Ka-band services. The satellite, designed to operate for 15 years, has 89 Ka-band fixed beams and 6 steerable ones.
Inmarsat anticipates that it will launch Inmarsat-5 F3 in early April which will give it global coverage, although with F2 and F1 – which was launched in late 2013 – it will already cover 98% of the world’s population.
Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat, said: “With Inmarsat-5 F3 expected for launch by Proton in the coming months, we are on schedule to achieve full global coverage early in the second half of 2015.”
When the project was announced in 2010 it was expected to become operational during 2014, but issues with ILS’s workhorse rocket have delayed proceedings. Proton was grounded after a launch failure in May 2014 – its fifth in less than five years – but returned to flight in September.
In its last results released on 6 November Inmarsat warned shareholders that there is the potential for further delays given relations between Russia and the West. It said there was a risk that potential “broadening of Russian trading restrictions could cause unspecified launch delays and delay global coverage of our Global Xpress services, which could adversely affect our revenues, profitability and results of operations”. The sanctions against Russia have not impacted the schedule at this point.
Inmarsat contracted Boeing to build the three Global Xpress satellites, based on its 702HP platform, in September 2010. The satellite operator then ordered a fourth Inmarsat-5 in October 2013 as a launch spare. If, though, the first three satellites are launched successfully, the fourth spacecraft will be put to use to increase capacity and enhance the group’s network coverage.
As part of the initial order agreement, Boeing has a contract to act as a reseller to provide L- and Ka-band payload capacity to US government customers through its Boeing Commercial Satellite Services unit. The company pre-committed to capacity purchases representing more than 10% of Inmarsat’s target Ka-band revenues of US$500m in the first five years after global service launch. The launch of the second satellite will enable Boeing to push ahead with the sales to the US government.
