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Paula Korn
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Friday, 14 November 2008 |
Sea Launch took delivery of the SICRAL 1B communications satellite this week at the Payload Processing Facility at Sea Launch Home Port in the Port of Long Beach.
With additional arrivals this month of associated hardware and personnel, preparations for launch operations are now underway in support of this mission in January 2009.
Sea Launch will be inserting the SICRAL 1B communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit for Telespazio, a Thales/Finmeccanica company, based in Rome. A contract signed with Telespazio in 2007 provides for the launch of SICRAL 1B to orbit on a Zenit-3SL vehicle. Built in Torino by Thales Alenia Space Italia, a Thales/Finmeccanica company, the dual-use Italsat 3000 bus spacecraft was integrated and tested in Cannes, France.
SICRAL 1B will provide strategic and tactical communications services for the Italian armed forces, in Italy and abroad, as well as ensuring mobile communications with land, naval and air platforms. It will also provide NATO forces with UHF and SHF SATCOM capabilities.
The launch of the SICRAL 1B satellite will follow the successful deployment and operation of SICRAL 1A, part of Italy’s first military communications satellite system dedicated to national security. SICRAL 1B has an expected operating life of 13 years and is designed to extend the potential of the system within NATO programs until 2019. As an investor in the SICRAL 1B program, Telespazio will have access of some of the satellite’s transmission capacity from its final orbital position at 11.8 degrees East Longitude.
About Sea Launch Company
Sea Launch Company, LLC, headquartered in Long Beach, Calif., offers the most direct and cost-effective route to geostationary orbit for commercial communications satellites. With the advantage of a launch site on the Equator, the robust Zenit-3SL rocket can lift a heavier mass or provide longer life on orbit, offering best value plus optimized spacecraft orbital delivery. Sea Launch also offers launch services for medium weight satellites - Land Launch - originating from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. |
