TIM FURNISS / LONDON
US manufacturer meanwhile authorised to launch Thuraya 2 to provide mobile telephone services to Hughes handsets
Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications has awarded Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS) a contract to build the Thuraya 3 spacecraft and authorised the company to launch Thuraya 2 using Sea Launch in January next year. Meanwhile, the Boeing-led Sea Launch venture placed the Galaxy IIIC communications satellite in orbit on 17 June.
Thuraya 2 is expected to enter the same 44°E orbit as the company's first satellite, which was launched in October 2000. Thuraya 1 was the first BSS 702-based GEO- Mobile spacecraft. The satellite to be launched next year will be similar, but with 10% more electrical power to extend its service life. United Arab Emirates-based Thuraya provides mobile telephone services combining terrestrial mobile and satellite communications using Hughes Network Systems handsets. It serves 106 countries.
The BSS-built Galaxy IIIC was launched on a Zenit 3SL booster from Sea Launch's Odyssey offshore platform in an equatorial position in the Pacific Ocean.
Galaxy IIIC is PanAmSat's 22nd spacecraft. Its deployment concluded a 30-month, $2 billion PanAmSat modernisation programme which included the launch of seven new satellites.
Randy Brinkley, BSS president, says by early next month Galaxy IIIC's solar array will be deployed and its xenon-ion propulsion system will be used to position the craft in its 95°W orbit. The 4,850kg (10,680lb) satellite is equipped with 24 C-band and 52 Ku-band transponders, and a new 48m (157ft)-span solar array designed to overcome contamination problems with earlier 702 buses.
The Galaxy deployment was Sea Launch's first since May last year when it carried two XM Radio satellites, Rock and Roll, into orbit.
Source: Flight International
