|
|
|
|
|
ARABSAT orders new satellite from EADS Astrium EADS ASTRIUM NEWS RELEASE Posted: June 8, 2006 EADS Astrium and ARABSAT, the communications satellite operator based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, have signed a contract for the construction of the BADR-6 ('Full Moon') satellite. Scheduled to enter service in 2008, BADR-6 will provide communications services over a wide area encompassing the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, from Morocco to the Gulf, and a large part of sub-Saharan Africa. It is the fifth communications satellite contract awarded to EADS Astrium since the beginning of 2006. EADS Astrium will build the satellite as prime contractor and will be responsible for launch and early operations as part of an in-orbit delivery contract. EADS Astrium has already developed the Satellite Control Centres in Dirab (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and in Tunis (Tunisia) to control the ARABSAT satellite fleet. The communications payload will be supplied by Alcatel Alenia Space. BADR-6 has a launch mass of 3.4 tons, a solar array span of 32 meters once deployed in orbit, and payload power of about 6 kW. As with the two satellites already built by EADS Astrium for ARABSAT, BADR-6 is based on the E2000+ version of the highly successful Eurostar communications satellite series. BADR-6 will provide commercial services for a minimum of 15 years. Equipped with 20 transponders in Ku-band and 24 transponders in C-band, it will offer the highest downlink power level and the widest coverage over the in both bands across the Arab world. Joining ARABSAT's constellation of BADR satellites at 26 deg East prime video position, it will provide media groups in the Arab and neighbouring regions with unparalleled satellite broadcast services for direct-to-home television in both bands, the latest interactive TV applications and internet broadband direct-access services. It will also provide enough extra capacity to accommodate the anticipated boom in demand for HDTV in the Middle East and North Africa in the coming years. Eng. Khalid Balkheyour, ARABSAT's President and CEO, commented: "With its fast-track delivery schedule, this decision ensures that our customers operating at ARABSAT's 26 deg East primary TV "Hot Spot" will continue to receive from us in the next 20 years the highest levels of reliability and performance for state-of-the-art television and telecommunications services such as HD-TV, DVB-S2, DTT, 3G, etc. that we have been consistently delivering to them over the last thirty years of operations. Moreover, it will guarantee to our Broadcasters, for the long-term, full technical stability with the best ever conditions available in the MENA region to deliver their programming to our growing audience of 130 Million viewers." EADS Astrium CEO Antoine Bouvier declared: "I am delighted that ARABSAT has reaffirmed its trust in EADS Astrium by the award of this contract. We welcome this new opportunity to work together again in a spirit of continued cooperation, and mark a new step in the development of ARABSAT's business." EADS Astrium is Europe's leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment. EADS Astrium is a subsidiary of EADS SPACE. In 2005 EADS SPACE had a turnover of ¤2.7 billion and 11,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2005, EADS generated revenues of ¤34.2 billion and employed a workforce of more than 113,000. |
|
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
Space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale and launch director Mike Leinbach hold this news conference May 31 from Kennedy Space Center to offer a status report on STS-121 mission preparations. The briefing was held at the conclusion of the debris verification review, which examined the external fuel tank and threats to the shuttle from impacts during launch.
Dial-up: 
NASA created its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system to serve as a constellation of orbiting spacecraft that would replace the costly ground tracking stations scattered around the globe for communications with space shuttles and other satellites. Space shuttle Discovery's STS-29 mission in March 1989 launched the massive TDRS-D craft. This post-flight film narrated by the crew shows the deployment, the astronauts running a series of medical tests and the monitoring of a student-developed chicken embryo experiment.
Space shuttle Columbia began mission STS-61C with a beautiful sunrise launch in January 1986 after several delays. Led by commander Hoot Gibson, the astronauts deployed a commercial communications satellite and tended to numerous experiments with the Materials Science Laboratory, Hitchhiker platform and Getaway Special Canisters in the payload bay. The crew included Congressman Bill Nelson of Florida, the first U.S. Representative to fly in space. Watch this post-flight film narrated by the astronauts.
The Boeing Delta 4 rocket launches from pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the GOES-N spacecraft, beginning a new era in weather observing for the Americas.
As night fell over Kennedy Space Center on May 19, space shuttle Discovery reached launch pad 39B to complete the slow journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Discovery will be traveling much faster in a few weeks when it blasts off to the International Space Station.
The November 1985 flight of space shuttle Atlantis began with a rare nighttime blastoff. The seven-member crew, including a Mexican payload specialist, spent a week in orbit deploying three communications satellites for Australia, Mexico and the U.S. And a pair of high-visibility spacewalks were performed to demonstrate techniques for building large structures in space. The crew narrates the highlights of STS-61B in this post-flight crew film presentation.