SICRAL 1B

Spacecraft n°:

Italian spacecraft n°: 25

Launch data: Designation  34810 / 09020A Launch date  20 Apr 2009 - 08:16 UT Launch site  Odyssey, POR Launch vehicle  Zenit-3SL Mission  Mil/Commercial: Communications Geostationary orbit on May 8.00: Perigee / Apogee  35787 x 35788 km Eccentricity  1.66E-04 Inclination  0.02 deg Period  1436.13 min

Mission details:

• Italy's second military communications satellite, SICRAL 1B, was launched on Apr 20, 2009 by a Boeing-Sea Launch Zenit-3SL from the floating Odyssey launch platform in the equatorial Pacific. The satellite was built at Thales Alenia/Torino. The SICRAL (Sistema Italiano per Comunicazioni Riservate ed Allarmi, Italian System for Classified Communications and Alarms), launched for the Italian Ministry of Defense and manufactured by the SITAB consortium made up of Alenia Spazio, a Finmeccanica Company (70%), Fiat Avio (20%) and Telespazio (10%), using the GeoBus/Italsat-3000 platform.
• The Torino (Turin) plant of Thales Alenia built the ELDO STV satellites in the 1960s, when it was part of FIAT. In 1969 it became part of Aeritalia, in 1990 part of Alenia Spazio, in 2005 part of Alcatel Alenia Space, and in 2007 Thales Alenia.
• One third paid by Telespazio; will use some transponders for approved government customers.
• The Zenit-3SL's lower two stages put the Blok DM-SL upper stage in a -1949 x 233 km x 0.0 deg trajectory; the two DM burns went to an elliptical 200 x 14108 km x 0.0 deg intermediate orbit and then an 8528 x 35596 km x 0.0 high-perigee geostationary transfer orbit.
  Three debris objects have been cataloged in the transfer orbit - this is unusual for Zenit-3SL launches.