Globalstar M084

Launch data: Designation  38040 / 11080A Launch date  28 Dec 2011 - 17:09 UT Launch site  Baik, LC-31/6 Launch vehicle  Soyuz-2-1A/Fregat Mission  Commercial: Communication Intermediate LEO Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  927.8 x 933.2 km Eccentricity   Inclination  52.0° Period  103.5 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Each second-generation Globalstar satellite weighs approximately 700 kg, offering end-of-life power of 1.7 kW. It is fitted with 16 transponders from C- to S-band, and 16 receivers from L- to C-band. Each satellite has a design life of 15 years.
• The satellite body is trapezoidal in shape with two deployed solar panels, in order to allow multiple satellites to be carried on the same launch. The wider side of the body that faces the sun in flight holds L-, S-, and C-band antennas communicating with gateways and phones.
• Globalstar’s 24 new second-generation satellites will be integrated with the eight first-generation satellites that were launched in 2007. The new constellation secures the company’s space segment through beyond 2025.
• Once fully deployed, the advanced second-generation constellation and next-generation ground network are designed to provide Globalstar customers with increased data speeds of up to 256 kbps in a flexible Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) configuration. Products and services supported are expected to include: push-to-talk and multicasting, advanced messaging capabilities such as multimedia messaging or MMS, mobile video, geo-location services, multi-band and multimode handsets, and data devices with GPS integration.

Globalstar launch profile (see Arianespace's Press Kit)

Mission details:

• Six Globalstar low orbit telecom satellites were launched on Dec 28 on a Soyuz-2-1a from Plesetk (Baik.??). The successful launch by Roskosmos was a relief coming only days after the Soyuz-2-1b failure, which may - perhaps - be isolated to the RD-0124 engine that's unique to the 1b variant.