[Satnews] Telesat announces the successful launch of its new Telstar 12 VANTAGE satellite aboard a rocket provided by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
Telstar 12 VANTAGE was built by Airbus Defence and Space and is the first of a new generation of Telesat satellites with capacity optimized to serve the types of bandwidth intensive applications increasingly in demand by users. Operating from Telesat’s prime orbital location of 15 degrees West, Telstar 12 VANTAGE will utilize a combination of broad regional beams and high throughput spot beams to increase capacity and offer superior performance for broadcasters as well as enterprise networks on the ground, in the air and at sea. The satellite will use Ku-band for all customer services assuring backward compatibility with existing Ku-band terminal equipment.
Artistic rendition of the Telstar 12 Vantage satellite.
Image is courtesy of Airbus Defence and Space.
Telstar 12 VANTAGE was launched aboard MHI’s upgraded H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 29 (H-IIA F29) from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan today at 3:50 p.m. local time. The satellite separated from the upper stage of the rocket and its signal was acquired by Telesat’s tracking station in Allan Park, Canada, shortly after spacecraft separation, about four and one half hours after liftoff. This was MHI’s first launch of a commercial satellite. The satellite has a mass of approximately 4800 kg and a 15 year design life.
The launch of Telstar 12 Vantage satellite aboard an H-IIA F29 launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.
Launch photo is courtesy of JAXA.
Telstar 12 VANTAGE replaces and expands on Telesat’s Telstar 12 satellite. Telstar 12 has long been valued by the satellite user community for its ability to seamlessly connect the Americas to Europe and the Middle East from 15 West, one of the few orbital locations that enables such coverage. With Telstar 12 VANTAGE, customers in mobility, government, and energy markets will now have even greater service options between EMEA and the Americas along with powerful new beams over Brazil, Sub-Saharan Africa, the South Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and North Sea.
Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, with offices and facilities around the world, the company’s state-of-the-art fleet will grow to 15 satellites, once Telstar 12 VANTAGE is brought into service, plus the Canadian Ka-band payload on ViaSat-1. Telesat also manages the operations of additional satellites for third parties. Privately held, Telesat’s principal shareholders are Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL).
Executive Comment
“Telstar 12 VANTAGE marks another advance in Telesat’s record of innovative payload designs and provides our customers with the advantages they need to compete successfully in today’s satellite service markets,” said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s President and CEO. “Telesat is pleased to be building on our leadership in mobility services, both maritime and aero, with powerful new coverage over the North Sea, the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the South Atlantic. We would like to thank our valued partners – MHI and Airbus Defence and Space – for the successful and timely launch of Telesat’s Telstar 12 VANTAGE satellite.”
