HBK CHAT VOL: 22 ISS 1

Missions and Launches

VOL 22: ISS 1

Space Ops Supports Earth Observing and Communication Satellites - Yunus Bhayat

Launched on 19 December 2021, Türksat 5B is a Turkish geostationary high-throughput (HTS) communica- tions satellite developed for military and commercial purposes. It is slat- ed to serve on a geostationary orbit at 42° east longitude.Once placed in a +-36000km geostrationary orbit, it will use onboard electric thrusters to reach 42 degrees east to provide high throughput Ka- and Ku-band services over Turkey, the Middle East and parts of Africa. It was built on a Eurostar-3000 EOR satellite bus manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space with a mass of 4,500 kg and an expected design life- time of 15 years. SANSA Space Operations provid- ed transfer-orbit support (TOS) for TURKSAT-5B using the HBK-07 Ku/ DBS-band antenna system. A total of 8 days of support was successfully provided. Space Operations is also

contracted to provide the Earth-Orbit Raising (EOR) phase support which is currently being undertaken weekly with around 3 to 4 passes per month for the next few months. Another exciting launch support was for GOES-18 aka GOES-T, a new satellite within the current generation of weather satellites operated by the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration (NOAA). The current and next satellites of the se- ries will extend the availability of the Geostationary Operational Environ- mental Satellite (GOES) system until 2037. GOES-T is the third in a series of four spacecraft in NOAA’s current gen- eration of weather-monitoring satel- lites in geostationary orbit. NOAA’s GOES fleet tracks hurricanes, severe storms, wildfires, dust storms, and other weather events in real-time, giv- ing forecasters a minute-by-minute

glimpse of evolving conditions. The satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral on 1 March 2022 from an Atlas V. It was built by Lockheed Mar- tin and is based on the A2100A satel- lite bus which will have an expected useful life of 15 years. SANSA Space Operations provided S-band transfer-orbit support (TOS) to the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) during the first nine days of the mission, most of which was nominal. The satellite on the other hand, ex- perienced an automatic engine shut- down that consequently aborted its first major post-launch manoeuvre, whilst moving toward its operational geostationary orbit. The cause of the anomaly was identified and resolved, and the satellite is reported to not be in any danger nor did it experience any damage. GOES-T successfully resumed orbit-raising with a main en- gine burn on March 5.

Date

Type

Client

Satellite

Duration

Frequency band

19 December 2021 TOS and EOR Intelsat

Turksat-5B TOS: L + 8 days EOR: weekly Ku

1 March 2022

TOS

SSC

GOES-18 (T) TOS

S

Artist’s concept of the GOES-T satellite in orbit_Credit_Lockheed Martin

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