Azerspace / Africasat 1a

Spacecraft nr:

Azerbaijan spacecraft nr: 1

Launch data: Designation  39079 / 13006B Launch date  07 Feb 2013 - 21:36 UT Launch site  Kourou, ELA-3 Launch vehicle  Ariane-5ECA (L568 - VA212) Mission  Gov.: Communication Geostationary orbit: Perigee / Apogee  35778 x 35794 km Eccentricity  1,90E-04 Inclination  0.04 deg Period  1436.08 min

Description:

• AZERSPACE is Azerbaijan's first satellite and is designed to link the Central Asia nation with Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Known as AZERSPACE within Azerbaijan, the spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. in partnership with Measat Satellite Systems of Malaysia, which has rights to the satellite's orbital position at 46 degrees east longitude and plans to use part of the platform's communications capacity. Measat calls the satellite AFRICASAT 1A, noting the company's focus on African coverage with the new spacecraft. The AZERSPACE/AFRICASAT 1A mission will aid customers in the Internet, video distribution, direct-to-home television markets. The government of Azerbaijan will be a primary user of the satellite.
• The satellite will be based on Orbital’s flight-proven Star-2 platform and will generate approximately five kilowatts of payload power for 36 active transponders. The Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite carries hybrid Ku and C-band payloads to provide services to Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Europe and Africa. Orbital will be responsible for providing the satellite and ground system.

Mission details:

• Arianespace flew Ariane 5ECA launcher L568 on mission VA212 from Kourou on Feb 7, 2013 placing two communications satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. The EPC 568 core stage flew a -995 x 157 x 6.0 deg path into the Atlantic; the ESC-A upper stage put the two satellites and the Sylda adapter into a 262 x 35830 km x 6 deg GTO.
• Azerspace is operated by Azercosmos for the Azerbaijan Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies; some capacity will also be used by Measat of Malaysia to provide services to Africa, and Measat calls the satellite Africasat-1A.

Satellite tracking: