Four additional spacecraft for SES’ O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation were orbited today by a Soyuz launch from French Guiana, supporting a long-time Arianespace customer and underscoring the medium-lift workhorse launcher’s suitability for a full range of missions.

Departing from the Spaceport’s ELS launch complex near the city of Sinnamary, and ascending into clear skies over French Guiana, Soyuz deployed its four passengers during a flight of approximately 2 hrs., 22 min. This included the propulsion of Soyuz’ first three stages, as well as four burns of its Fregat upper stage.

Today’s launch was Soyuz’ 18th from French Guiana since it began service at the Spaceport in 2011, and was designated Flight VS18 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system.

Impressive numbers for the SES/Arianespace relationship

 

 In post-launch comments at the Spaceport, Luce Fabreguettes, Arianespace’s Executive Vice President Missions, Operations & Purchasing, noted that the mission’s payloads are the 54th, 55th, 56th and 57th spacecraft orbited by Arianespace for global satellite operator SES – extending an exceptional partnership that dates back to 1988.

O3b spacecraft are utilized by the SES Networks operation of SES to provide low latency, fiber-like connectivity in the growing mobility, fixed data and government markets. These trapezoidal-shaped Ka-band relay platforms, produced by Thales Alenia Space, have a liftoff mass of 700 kg. each.

Speaking from the Spaceport after the mission’s completion, SES Chief Technology Officer Martin Halliwell confirmed that ground tracking stations acquired signals from all four satellites lofted by Flight VS18, and thanked Arianespace for the successful launch. “This important mission increases our capacity in Medium Earth Orbit by 38 percent,” he said.

Halliwell noted that SES would be back at the Spaceport in early 2019 with the next four O3b satellites.

The passengers on today’s flight will join the 12 O3b satellites already in orbit, launched by Arianespace using its medium-lift Soyuz workhorse that carries four spacecraft on each launch. The previous missions were performed in June 2013, July 2014 and December 2014. Positioned at approximately 8,000 km., the O3b satellites are some four-times-closer to Earth than geostationary-orbit satellites.

The four newly-launched satellites will enable SES Networks to offer more capacity, enhanced coverage, increased efficiencies and greater reliability while delivering carrier-grade services to telecommunications operators, mobile network operators, enterprises, internet service providers and government customers.

After today’s Flight VS18, Arianespace has five more SES satellites in its backlog, comprising four additional spacecraft for SES Networks’ O3b constellation, and the all-electric SES-17 – to be used by SES for high-speed inflight connectivity and high-powered data services.

 

 Thales Alenia Space-built satellites on Flight VS18

 

 In comments after Flight VS18, Arianespace’s Luce Fabreguettes also offered her congratulations to Thales Alenia Space, another long-time partner that produced the four O3b spacecraft lofted on today’s Soyuz mission. “With 154 Thales Alenia Space produced satellites orbited since 1981 by Arianespace, and 11 more in our backlog, we will certainly continue to partner for many common successes,” she added.

Patrick Mauté, Thales Alenia Space’s Chief Technical Officer, said the Soyuz launcher “operated like clockwork – perfectly,” and complemented the launch teams’ “skills, competency, and great talent,” adding they were the keys to today’s successful launch.

Flight VS18 was Arianespace’s second mission in 2018 with a member of its complete launcher family – which also includes the heavyweight Ariane 5 and light-lift Vega. It continues a busy year of activity for Arianespace, which has identified a total of 14 launch opportunities from the Spaceport.

Arianespace’s next mission is Flight VA242 with an Ariane 5, which will carry a dual-payload to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) that includes the HYLAS 4 satellite for Avanti. </s> Arianespace successfully conducted its second launch this year on Friday, March 9 lofting four O3b communications satellites to orbit.

The mission, designated VS18, employed a Russian-built Soyuz ST-B rocket which lifted off from the Soyuz Launch Complex (ELS) at 16:37 GMT (11:37 a.m. EST) on Friday, March 9.

The Soyuz ST-B was rolled out to the launch pad a few days earlier, on March 2 as the VS18 mission was initially scheduled to be launched March 6. However, Arianespace decided to postpone the launch in order to “…enable additional checks as part of the resumption of launches from the Spaceport in French Guiana.”

The countdown campaign commenced approximately five hours ahead of the scheduled liftoff when it was decided that the launch vehicle was ready for fueling operations. The conclusive phase of the campaign started some five minutes before the launch, when the rocket’s Fregat upper stage was switched to onboard power.

Sixteen seconds after the ignition of its four strap-on boosters (affixed to the rocket’s first stage) the Soyuz ST-B thundered off the launch pad and completed a short vertical ascent. The first phase of the flight lasted almost two minutes, until about T+1:58 minutes when the strap-on boosters were jettisoned, leaving the launch vehicle powered by its second stage alone.

About two minutes later, the protective payload fairing was detached from the Ariane 5, unveiling the mission’s four passengers.

The central core separated from the assembly some four minutes and 47 seconds into the flight and the propulsion for the flight was provided by the third stage, which burned for about four and half minutes.

After the separation of the third stage, the rocket’s Fregat upper stage was ignited, this marked the start of a two-hour trek to deliver the payload into targeted circular orbit at an altitude of 4,865 miles (7,830 kilometers).

The Fregat upper stage conducted three engine burns in order to deploy the first two O3b satellites into orbit about two hours and one minute into the flight.

Afterward, the upper stage completed one more burn and released the remaining two satellites two hours and 22 minutes after liftoff.

Built by Thales Alenia Space, each O3b satellite weighs around 1,543 lbs. (700 kilograms) and has dimensions of 25.3 x 10.5 x 5.57 feet (7.72 x 3.2 x 1.7 meters). The spacecraft is based on the ELiTeBus-1000 platform and has two deployable solar arrays capable of generating up to 2,482 W of power during its planned operational lifetime of 10 years.

The quartet of the newly launched O3b satellites will be operated by O3b Networks, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. The four new spacecraft will reside in a medium-Earth orbit (MEO) from this vantage point they should provide high-speed connectivity to people and businesses in growing mobility, fixed data and government markets. For this purpose, each satellite of the quartet is fitted with 12 Ka-band transponders designed to enable the high speed flow of data between locations on the ground.

If everything goes as envisioned, the VS18 mission should expanded the constellation of O3b satellites currently in orbit from 12 to 16 spacecraft. The new quarter are designed to generally focus on providing more capacity, enhanced coverage, increased efficiency and greater reliability while delivering carrier-grade services including MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certified services to telecommunications operators, mobile network operators, enterprises, Internet service providers and government customers.

“In addition to the O3b satellites’ throughput capabilities and low latency, a unique feature of the O3b constellation is that it is easily scalable and is designed to be expanded in response to demand. Demand for reliable fiber-like connectivity has never been higher, and we are excited that our satellites can play a key role in connecting people, communities, and improving their lives,” said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES.

The first batch of four O3b satellites was delivered into space on June 25, 2013 by another Soyuz ST-B rocket.

The Soyuz ST-B launcher that was employed for Friday’s mission is a four-stage launch vehicle that is composed of four boosters affixed to its first stage, a central core (second stage), a third stage, and a restartable Fregat upper stage. It also includes a payload adapter/dispenser and fairing.

Friday’s mission was Arianespace’s second launch of 2018 as well as the second mission that got its start from Kourou this year. The company’s next planned flight is currently scheduled for March 21 when the Superbird-B3/DSN-1 and HYLAS-4 communications satellites are slated to be send aloft atop an Ariane 5 rocket. </s> Arianespace said its Soyuz rocket successfully launched four broadband satellites into space from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou.

"Four additional spacecraft for SES' O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation were orbited (Friday) by a Soyuz launch from French Guiana, supporting a long-time Arianespace customer and underscoring the medium-lift workhorse launcher's suitability for a full range of missions," the Courcouronnes, France-based company said in a statement on its Web site. </s> Four satellites set to join O3b’s expanding broadband network successfully launched Friday on top of a Russian-built Soyuz booster from French Guiana, joining 12 other craft linking developing nations, far-flung islands, cruise ships and other hard-to-reach locales with the Internet.

Mounted on a carrying dispenser inside the Soyuz rocket’s nose cone, the four O3b spacecraft will grow the satellite-based broadband network’s reach and coverage, answering demand for more bandwidth from the initiative’s current and prospective customers.

The satellites lifted off at 1710:06 GMT (12:10:06 p.m. EST; 2:10:06 p.m. French Guiana time) from the Guiana Space Center, a spaceport carved from the edge of the Amazon rainforest on the northeastern coast of South America. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket pushed the O3b payloads into a mostly sunny sky after 33-minute delay to allow for improved wind conditions aloft.

The Soyuz booster pitched on a downrange trajectory east from the European-run space center, and dropped four kerosene-fueled first stage boosters into the Atlantic Ocean around two minutes after liftoff. Engines on the Soyuz core stage and third stage fired in succession, and a Russian Fregat upper stage ignited to place the O3b satellites into a preliminary parking orbit.

Two more Fregat upper stage burns placed the O3b payloads close to their targeted deployment altitude of 4,865 miles (7,830 kilometers) above the equator.

The first pair of O3b satellites released from the Fregat upper stage at 1911 GMT (2:11 p.m. EST), followed by a brief rocket firing to move to a nearby position for separation of the other two spacecraft at 1932 GMT (2:32 p.m. EST).

Officials confirmed all four satellites, built by Thales Alenia Space, established contact with ground teams a few minutes later. The reception of telemetry verified the spacecraft were in the correct orbit and healthy following the launch.

Arianespace, the French company in charge of Soyuz launch operations at the Guiana Space Center, declared the mission a success.

“Arianespace is delighted to announce that the four O3b satellites have been safely separated as planned in their targeted Medium Earth Orbit,” said Luce Fabreguettes, the launch company’s executive vice president for missions, operations and purchasing.

Friday’s launch was the 18th time a Russian Soyuz rocket has lifted off from French Guiana since October 2011, and the 1,885th flight by a Soyuz rocket variant overall.

The flight plan for the satellites called for each craft to extend its power-generating solar panels, then complete a series of in-orbit checks. The spacecraft will slightly raise their altitudes to join the other 12 satellites in the O3b fleet, then enter commercial service by mid-May.

“We are very excited to have four more O3b satellites in orbit, and we look forward to them joining the constellation in May and serving our customers around the globe,” said Steve Collar, the CEO of SES Networks who will take over as chief executive of the overall SES enterprise next month. “The demand for high performance bandwidth and networks continues to grow and, as the only successful non-geostationary broadband system, we need these new satellites to fulfil demand across a wide range of verticals and applications.”

The four new satellites join 12 others launched on three previous Soyuz rocket flights from French Guiana in 2013 and 2014.

SES completed the purchase of 100 percent of O3b Networks’ ownership in 2016, soon after O3b ordered eight additional satellites from Thales Alenia Space in response to growing demand. The next four O3b craft will launch on another Soyuz mission from French Guiana in early 2019.

The O3b satellites carry Ka-band broadband beams to relay high-speed Internet connectivity to far-flung communities, industrial facilities and mobile users.

“From connecting underserved communities and meaningfully transforming lives through improved broadband access, to delivering state of the art satellite-enabled network services to ships, planes and government platforms, our O3b fleet offers unique and differentiated performance and is driving our customers’ businesses forward,” Collar said in a press release.

The O3b network provides connectivity to conventional Internet Service Providers, governments, schools and universities, remote factories, oil and gas platforms, humanitarian missions, resorts and the maritime industry, including luxury cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean.

The O3b satellites fly in a medium-altitude orbit more than four times closer to Earth than the geostationary belt more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator, where most large telecommunications craft reside. That reduces the latency of an Internet connection established through the O3b satellites, or the time required for a user to send a request and get a response.

The idea behind O3b, which was named for the “Other 3 billion” people without reliable Internet access, was to use satellites to link places difficult to reach with terrestrial fiber networks.

From Medium Earth Orbit, the O3b satellites cover a swath of the planet ranging between approximately 45 degrees north and south latitude.

SES Networks says the O3b network has beamed Internet signals for the U.S. Department of Defense and the United Nations, and provided connectivity to numerous island nations: Palau, Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, East Timor and America Samoa.

African markets have also taken up O3b usage, with Internet services beamed to Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Angola and Madagascar.

The Galapagos Islands and Easter Island have also received Internet services through the O3b satellites, along with parts of Peru and the Amazon basin in Brazil.

The satellites launched Friday will add 38 percent to O3b’s broadband capacity, officials said. They also debut an improved antenna design and a better encryption standard, offering a performance upgrade over the original 12 O3b satellites.

“There’s not one segment that’s really driven us to do this,” said John-Paul Hemingway, executive vice president of product, marketing and strategy at SES Networks. “All the (market) segments are doing well, but we just needed more capacity. We have actually pre-sold some of this capacity, but there’s a lot more capacity available with this (additional) 38 percent to react to customer growth.

“Of course, we’re very positive about that because we are planning to launch another four satellites within the next 12 months, some time in the first half of ’19,” Hemingway said in a phone interview with Spaceflight Now.

“This was the fourth launch performed by Arianespace for our O3b fleet and we have yet another batch of O3b satellites planned for 2019 on their Soyuz rocket as well,” said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES. “This is the beauty of our MEO constellation: it can easily be scaled to respond to demand in an agile manner while beams can be allocated dynamically to where the demand is, and thus deliver low-latency connectivity where our customers need it. By augmenting our fleet, we will offer more throughput, more coverage, and more capabilities to our customers.”

SES last year announced an upgraded network that will begin launching in 2021.

The O3b mPower fleet will consist of seven satellites built by Boeing that will launch into the same roughly 5,000-mile-high (8,000-kilometer) orbit currently occupied by the first-generation O3b satellites.

Once operational, the O3b mPower network will reach many more parts of the world, meeting the entire data traffic needs of some small countries, SES officials said when they unveiled the program in September.

Billed as the first “multi-terabit” satellite constellation, O3b mPower will multiply the capability of the current-generation O3b fleet. Each O3b mPower satellite will carry 4,000 Ka-band beams, up from 10 on each of the current O3b spacecraft. </s> Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with four O3b commercial broadband communications satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Arianespace’s live video stream begins at 1622 GMT (11:22 a.m. EST), and will be available on this page. </s> Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s communication satellite GSAT-17 will be launched early Thursday morning around 2:00 am onboard Arianespace rocket from Kourou Launch Base in French Guiana. ISRO said, “GSAT-17 is scheduled to be launched at 2:29 hrs IST on June 29 by the Ariane-5 launch vehicle”, according to the news agency PTI.

The 3,477 kg GSAT-17 will carry payloads in normal C-band, extended C-band and S-band to provide various communication services. According to the space agency, the satellite also carries equipment for meteorological data relay and satellite-based search and rescue services being provided by earlier INSAT satellites.

This is the third satellite launch by ISRO in June. The earth observation Cartosat 2 series satellite on-board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – C38 and the heavyweight Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III are the previous ones. Both were launched from Sriharikota spacesport. GSLV MkIII successfully launched GSAT-19 satellite on June 5 while PSLV-C38 orbited Cartosat-2 Series satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites on June 23 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Apart from GSAT 17, the Ariane-5 launch vehicle will also launch another communication satellite- Hellas Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN. This is the fourth Ariane-5 mission in 2017, as reported by NDTV. The launch will be from Ariane Launch Complex No 3 in Kourou, French Guiana, and the total payload that will be carried on Flight VA238 is approximately 10,177 kg.

Hellas Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN is positioned as the upper passenger on Ariane 5, and will be released first during the flight, followed by GSAT-17’s deployment from the launcher’s lower payload position, Arianespace said. It is expected that the mission from liftoff to deployment of the two satellites into Geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) will take about 39 minutes.

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App </s> A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Es'Hail-2 communications satellite launches into space from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Nov. 15, 2018. SpaceX will reuse this rocket's first stage for the Amos-17 mission on Aug. 6.

Today (Aug. 6) is going to be a big day in space!

After a Cygnus cargo spacecraft departs the International Space Station this afternoon, SpaceX and Arianespace will be launching a total of three new communications satellites into orbit. You can watch all three events live here at Space.com. 



First up: Cygnus undocking (12:15 p.m. ET)

First, the Cygnus cargo ship will undock from the space station at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT). NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch will use the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the vessel into the vacuum of space. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the send-off beginning 15 minutes prior to its departure.

The Cygnus arrived at the space station in April with 7,600 lbs. (3,447 kilograms) of supplies and experiments for the astronauts on board. Instead of heading straight toward Earth to burn up in the atmosphere, as departing cargo ships typically do, this Cygnus will stay in orbit for a few months to test a new cubesat-deploying contraption called "SlingShot."

Above is a video of the last time a Cygnus spacecraft returned to Earth. 



Next, the European launch provider Arianespace will launch two communications satellites on an Ariane 5 rocket. It will lift off from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT). This will be the first launch for Arianespace since the company's Vega rocket experienced a launch failure in July.

For this mission, Arianespace is launching the Intelsat 39 telecommunications satellite, which will serve "broadband networking, video and government customers across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Indian Ocean region," according to Arianespace's description of the mission.

The second satellite, named EDRS-C, will be the second satellite of the "SpaceDataHighway" — also known as the European Data Relay System — and will provide high-speed laser communications between satellites in low Earth orbit and ground tracking stations down on Earth. It will enable near-real-time processing of images and data from various Earth-observing satellites.

A live webcast of this launch will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff. You can watch it here on Space.com, courtesy of Arianespace, or directly via the company's YouTube.

This launch window is open until 5:51 p.m. EDT (2151 GMT). The Intelsat 29 satellite is expected to deploy 29 minutes after liftoff, and EDRS-C will follow just 4 minutes later. 



Last but not least, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket with the Amos-17 satellite. Amos-17 is a communications satellite built by Boeing for Spacecom Ltd. of Israel, and it will provide broadband connectivity over Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a 1-hour, 28-minute launch window that opens at 6:52 p.m. EDT (2252 GMT). The mission was delayed from last week after SpaceX discovered a valve issue with the Falcon 9.

You can watch the live webcast here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company's YouTube.



Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. </s> Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s latest communication satellite GSAT-17 was Thursday successfully launched around 2.00 am by a heavy duty rocket of Arianespace from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana. Configured around I-3K extended bus, the 3,477 kg GSAT-17 carries payloads in Normal C-band, Extended C-band and S-band to provide various communication services. The satellite also carries equipment for meteorological data relay and satellite-based search and rescue services being provided by earlier INSAT satellites.

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According to a PTI report, the European launcher Arianespace Flight VA238 blasted off from Ariane Launch Complex No 3 (ELA 3) at Kourou, a French territory located in the northeastern coast of South America, couple of minutes delayed than the scheduled time of 2:29 hours IST.

“GSAT-17 was injected shortly after orbiting co-passenger Hellas Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN in a flawless flight lasting about 41 minutes,” the report said.

After the successful launch of the mission, the space agency said, “GSAT-17 successfully launched by Ariane-5 VA-238 from Kourou, French Guiana. GSAT-17 that will strengthen ISRO’s current fleet of 17 telecommunications satellites was launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).”

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The launch of GSAT-17 will be the third satellite launch by ISRO this month, the other two being the first developmental flight of GSLV MkIII and PSLV C-38 missions, both from Sriharikota spaceport. The recent launches by the space agency were GSAT-19 satellite on June 5 and the PSLV-C38 that orbited Cartosat-2 Series satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites on June 23 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Announcing the successful launch of the satellite, Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel tweeted, “Confirmed: GSAT-17 has successfully separated from its #Ariane5 launcher #VA238 @ISRO.”

ISRO, which has been dependent on Ariane-5 rocket for carrying its heavier satellites, is developing GSLV Mk III for this purpose.

The director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Dr K Sivan who watched the launch from the mission control centre thanked Arianespace and called it a ‘text book mission’.”GSAT-17 is a need of the hour for ISRO and India as it provides the continuity in services of ageing two satellites, as well as augmenting our transponder capability, and widening our horizon to mobile satellite services as well as to Antarctica areas,” he said.

“GSAT-17’s co-passenger Hellas Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN is a two-payload “condosat” produced by Thales Alenia Space for Hellas Sat and Inmarsat. Once in orbit, the Hellas Sat 3 component will deliver direct-to-home and telecom services to maintain and expand Hellas Sat’s business reach, while the Inmarsat S EAN component provides the satellite portion of Inmarsat’s new European Aviation Network,” the PTI report said.

Hellas Sat (member of the Arabsat Group) is a premium satellite operator, offering services in Europe, the Middle East and South Africa from the orbital position of 39 East. Inmarsat is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. The total payload carried on Flight VA238 is approximately 10,177 kg.

WATCH VIDEO: ISRO’s GSAT-17 launched successfully from French Guiana

GSAT-17’s launch will be the 21st satellite from ISRO by Arianespace, and it’s designed in-orbit operational life is about 15 years. After its injection into GTO, ISRO’s Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan takes control of GSAT-17 and performs the initial orbit raising maneuvers using the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of the satellite, placing it in circular Geostationary Orbit, the Indian space agency has said. </s> A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off Friday from French Guiana with four broadband satellites for the O3b network, which provides high-speed connectivity to developing countries, ships and other customers who lack a reliable Internet link.

The Soyuz-2.1b booster launched at 1710:06 GMT (12:10:06 p.m. EST; 2:10:06 p.m. French Guiana time) from its purpose-built pad at the Guiana Space Center. The mission, managed by Arianespace, aimed to place the four O3b satellites into a circular orbit nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) above the equator.

Owned by SES of Luxembourg, the O3b satellites will join 12 others already in orbit that were launched on three previous Soyuz missions in 2013 and 2014.

Read our Mission Status Center for details on the flight.
Arianespace launches mission VS18 from the Guiana Space Centre, a Soyuz rocket carrying a payload of four O3b communications satellites for SES.