The first satellite launch of the new millennium was routine, with an International Launch Services (ILS) Atlas IIA lifting off from Cape Canaveral on 21 January, carrying the US Air Force DSCS III B8 satellite.
It was followed on 24 January by PanAmSat's Galaxy XR, a high- power Hughes Space and Communications (HSC) HS-601HP communications satellite, launched on an Arianespace Ariane 42L from Kourou, French Guiana.
The satellite will be located at 123°W in geostationary Earth orbit and will provide services with 24 Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders. HSC is to launch five more PanAmSat satellites by the middle of next year. The remaining four will be three HS-601HPs and one HS-702.
The launch could be the first of 15 this year - a 50% increase over 1999 - says Arianespace. There could be between eight and 10 Ariane 4 launches and five by Ariane 5. The company's backlog of satellites for launch numbers 41, worth $3.15 billion.
China, meanwhile, launched the Zhongxing 22 communications satellite aboard a Long March 3A booster from Xichang on 26 January. The 2,300kg (5,070lb) satellite was placed into an initial orbit of 210 x 41,970km (130 x 26,070 miles) and will be operated for China Telecommunications and Broadcasting Satellite.
China's Shanghai Space Bureau reports that its work this year will include launching the Fengyun 2 geostationary orbiting weather satellite on a Long March 3 booster; the Long March 4B launch of a new-generation recoverable remote sensing satellite, and the development of the new Fengyun 3 low-Earth orbit, sun-synchronous meteorological satellite.
Source: Flight International
