Ariane 5 Successfully Launches Thailand’s iPSTAR Broadband Satellite

After an almost two-year delay, Thailand’s iPSTAR broadband satellite is finally launched on Thursday from Kourou, French Guiana. (CNES/ESA/Arianespace photo)

KOUROU, French Guiana, Aug. 12, 2005/Satnews Daily/ — Arianespace's Ariane 5 launcher demonstrated its performance and maturity on Thursday by lofting Thaicom 4 (iPSTAR) during an early-morning mission from the Spaceport in French Guiana. The payload is the heaviest commercial satellite ever delivered to geosynchronous orbit.

Thaicom 4 is a high-power broadband satellite built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) for Shin Satellite Plc of Thailand designed to provide broadband services to both enterprises and consumers throughout 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The satellite had a launch weight of 14,300 pounds (6486 kilograms).

According to SS/L, the satellite has a massive total data throughput capacity of over 45 Gbps. It is designed to provide users with data speeds of up to four Mbps on the forward link and two Mbps on the return link. Thaicom 4 will use its seven on-board antennas to create 112 spot and regional beams in the Ku and Ka frequency bands. The satellite will generate 14 kW of electrical power throughout its planned 12-year service life.

Shin Satellite, a turnkey satellite operator, provides C- and Ku-band transponder leasing, teleport and other value-added and engineering services to users in Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. Shin Satellite owns and operates Thaicom 1A, Thaicom 2 and Thaicom 3. The satellites carry a total of 47 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders offering over 100 channels. Thaicom is the hot-bird for Indochina, an emerging platform of choice for transcontinental satellite television broadcasts from Europe to Australia. The company has spent years researching and developing new technology to make Internet via satellite more efficient, thus reducing costs and improving the service to end-users.

Arianespace said the mission was delayed briefly to verify telemetry readings from the Ariane 5's mobile launch table. Thaicom 4 and the Ariane 5 Generic vehicle were placed into a safe mode while this activity occurred.

After its liftoff from the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch zone, tracking cameras followed the Ariane 5 during its ascent, clearly showing separation of the solid boosters two minutes into the mission. Thaicom 4 was released from the launcher's upper stage 26 minutes later.

Once in operational service, Thaicom 4 will generate 14 kW of electrical power during its planned 12-year mission life, providing Internet access and broadband services to businesses and consumers through 84 spot beams, three shaped beams and seven regional broadcast beams.

Ariane 5’s solid-propellant boosters (EAPs) were manufactured and integrated by EADS Space Transportation at the launch site in French Guiana. The EAPs are ignited seven seconds after the main cryogenic stage (EPC) Vulcain engine and burned for about 130 seconds, delivering the main thrust at lift-off of up to 540 tons.

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