Mission Update: Al Yah 3 Communications Satellite
January 23, 2018
| Launch Date: | January 25, 2018 |
| Launch Site: | Guiana Space Center, Kourou, French Guiana |
| Launch Vehicle: | Arianespace Ariane 5 |
| Mission Customer: | Yahsat |
Mission Update
January 26, 2018
The Al Yah 3 commercial communications satellite is in good health after a launch deviation occurred shortly after liftoff on January 25 from Kourou, French Guiana. The mission experienced some challenges during the launch stages which resulted in the Al Yah 3 satellite being inserted into an orbit that differed from the flight plan. The satellite was successfully acquired by the Orbital ATK mission operations team and is healthy and operating nominally. A revised flight plan will be executed in order to achieve the operational orbit and fulfill the original mission.
The Al Yah 3 satellite carries 53 active Ka-band user beams and four gateway beams, and produces approximately 7.5 kilowatts of payload electrical power. The Ka-band spot beams provide two-way communications services to facilitate high-speed delivery of data to end-user applications such as broadband Internet and corporate networking as well as IP backhaul for telecommunications service providers. Using the Al Yah 3 spacecraft, Yahsat will provide its services to Africa and Brazil. Orbital ATK was selected by Yahsat to build Al Yah 3. The Al Yah 3 satellite design is based on Orbital ATK’s GEOStar™-3 satellite platform, and was manufactured and tested at Orbital ATK’s state-of-the-art satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia.
Al Yah 3, built on a GEOStar-3 spacecraft bus, inside Orbital ATK’s Satellite Manufacturing Facility inDulles, Virginia prior to its shipment to the launch site.
About Orbital ATK GEOStar Satellites
Orbital ATK’s highly successful Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) communications satellites are based on the company’s GEOStar spacecraft platform, which is able to accommodate all types of commercial communications payloads and is compatible with all major commercial launchers. The company’s GEOStar product line includes the GEOStar-2 design, which is optimized for smaller satellite missions that can support up to 5.0 kilowatts of payload power. Orbital ATK has also developed the higher power GEOStar-3 spacecraft design, delivering the next increment of payload power for applications between 5.0 and 8.0 kilowatts, allowing Orbital ATK to offer its innovative and reliable satellite design to the medium-class of communications satellites.
More Information
]]>