Author Topic: SpaceX Signs Launch Agreements with Asia Broadcast Satellite and Satmex  (Read 34840 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

SpaceX Signs Launch Agreements with Asia Broadcast Satellite and Satmex

 

Hawthorne, CA – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has signed contracts with Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and Satélites Mexicanos (Satmex) for two launches aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

 

“This announcement marks SpaceX’s first launch contract in Mexico.  It is also the second launch contract in Asia that we have signed in the last month,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Technology Officer.  “Asia and Latin America represent two of the world’s hottest markets for commercial satellite operators.  SpaceX is ready to provide them with the solutions they need to add capacity and meet growing demand.”

 

“We are very pleased to have SpaceX, the world’s fastest growing space launch company, as our launch partner for Satmex 7. Satmex is positioned for a new era of growth with the anticipated launches of Satmex 8 in 2012 and Satmex 7 in late 2014 or early 2015. The addition of Satmex 7 (C and Ku band satellite) will expand our fleet to three satellites covering the Americas. Satmex 7 will be a cornerstone of the Satmex fleet designed to provide direct-to-home (DTH) and data services with increased power levels and improved elevation angles from any location within the coverage. These benefits will provide better performance to deliver media content directly to homes as well as broadband services,” said Patricio Northland, CEO of Satmex.

 

“Over the past decade, we have seen launch prices increase dramatically, making access to space out of reach for many programs.  As one of the fastest growing satellite operators in the world, ABS requires access to space that combines affordability and lift capacity for our future satellite programs,” said Tom Choi, CEO of ABS. “Together with Satmex, our co-launch partner, we embark upon an innovative prospect of dual launching four medium-powered satellites on two launches on the Falcon 9. We are extremely happy to be working with Satmex and SpaceX to dramatically realign the cost structure of space access in order to bring the affordable capacity demanded by our customers.”

 

SpaceX will launch the two companies’ geosynchronous telecommunications satellites on two separate launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launches will take place in late 2014 or early 2015 and the fourth quarter of 2015.

 

About SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft.  With a diverse manifest of launches to deliver commercial and government satellites to orbit, SpaceX is the world’s fastest growing space launch company.  In 2010, SpaceX became the first commercial company in history to put a spacecraft into orbit and return it safely to Earth.  With the retirement of the space shuttle, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will soon carry cargo, and one day astronauts, to and from the Space Station for NASA.  Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is a private company owned by management and employees, with minority investments from Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners. The company has over 1,600 employees in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Florida. For more information, visit www.SpaceX.com.

 

About Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS)

Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) is one of the fastest growing premium satellite operators in the world. ABS offers a complete range of End-to-End solutions including direct-to-home (DTH) and cable TV distribution (CATV), cellular backhaul, VSAT and Internet backbone services with diverse IP transit through its European and Asian internet gateways. ABS’s satellite fleet includes four operational satellites with a fifth satellite (ABS-2) under construction and expected to be launched in 2013, providing coverage over Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and CIS countries.  For more information, visit www.absatellite.com

 

About Satmex

Satélites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V. (Satmex) is a significant provider of fixed satellite services (FSS) in the Americas, with coverage of more than 90% of the population of the region across more than 45 nations and territories. As one of only two privately-managed FSS providers based in Latin America, Satmex (together with its predecessors) has designed, procured, launched and operated three generations of satellites during a period of over 25 years. Satmex’s current fleet is comprised of three satellites in highly attractive, contiguous orbital slots that enable its customers to effectively serve its entire coverage footprint utilizing a single satellite connection.

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Offline baldusi

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I thought that passing through the Van Allen Belt with electric propulsion required the sort of hardening and thermal stress that was associated with military satellites, and was sort of out of the question for commercial payloads. Could they use military spec parts, as long as they launch from the US and the clients only get to use the sat?

Offline go4mars

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"Satmex is positioned for a new era of growth with the anticipated launches of Satmex 8 in 2012 and"

Who's doing the 2012 launch? 
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"Satmex is positioned for a new era of growth with the anticipated launches of Satmex 8 in 2012 and"

Who's doing the 2012 launch? 

ILS with a Proton.
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Offline Ronsmytheiii

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"Satmex is positioned for a new era of growth with the anticipated launches of Satmex 8 in 2012 and"

Who's doing the 2012 launch? 

ILS with a Proton.

That might be significant then, if a US LV is now doing the work that the low cost Russian LV's used to do.  I am of course assuming that Satmex 8 and 7 are identical and have similar mission profiles in that statement.

Offline kevin-rf

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That might be significant then, if a US LV is now doing the work that the low cost Russian LV's used to do.  I am of course assuming that Satmex 8 and 7 are identical and have similar mission profiles in that statement.

There is a space news article on it in the duplicate thread that I assume Chris is merging into this one.

http://spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/120313-abs-satmex-banding-together-buy-boeing-all-electric-satellites.html

4 sats, Two launches, Electric propulsion only from the transfer orbit all the way to the final GSO orbit.
« Last Edit: 03/13/2012 03:31 pm by kevin-rf »
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Offline Jim

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Will have to see their dual payload fairing and the horizontal processing of it.

Offline baldusi

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BTW, they will use LEO, GTO or what? If I'm not mistaken the F9 to a 1800m/s GTO should have something like 4200kg. And here it get's interesting. I've noticed that they are doing dual in pairs of each company. Will it be like Proton's dual payload, where one sat is designed to carry the second one, or like Ariane's, with a SYLDAS analog? Besides, 2000kg per bird is sort of "small".
I also wonder, since electric is so much more efficient, if it wouldn't be better for them to do LEO and go up all the way electric. That could give each sat something like 4500kg. If they use 1000kg of fuel, they could have a lot of delta-v.

Offline mr. mark

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I'm really worried about schedule overreach on SpaceX's part. It's great to get contracts but, for a company of just 1,500 employees total, they really have a lot on their plate. Wouldn't it be better to concentrate on Falcon 9 and FH  along with Dragon development and the satellite contracts they already have? From a casual observer, things are getting mighty crowed over at SpaceX. Somethings got to give and that could be manned Dragon or reuse if they don't watch themselves.

Offline kevin-rf

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FYI

Boeing Presser: http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=2168

702SP Bus,

Boeing page for the older 702MP: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/702/intelsat/intelsat.html

The older 702MP's weighed between 5,700 kg to 6,400 kg at launch, and 3,500 kg to 3,800 kg on station. *Falcon 9 Excel results and guess's at 702SP launch weight will vary ;)

As far as I can tell, nothing yet on the ABS and Satmex websites.
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Offline Robotbeat

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I thought that passing through the Van Allen Belt with electric propulsion required the sort of hardening and thermal stress that was associated with military satellites, and was sort of out of the question for commercial payloads. ...
You thought wrong, then. ;)

I notice a pattern of people kind of automatically assuming radiation issues are worse than they actually are. And I definitely don't think you think this way, but many of those people then feel sort of proud of themselves for pointing out radiation issues as a sort of conversation stopper.
« Last Edit: 03/13/2012 04:55 pm by Robotbeat »
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Offline baldusi

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Boeing 702SP http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/702/702SP.html

Not much new information, save that the contract includes an option for four extra satellites.

Offline baldusi

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I thought that passing through the Van Allen Belt with electric propulsion required the sort of hardening and thermal stress that was associated with military satellites, and was sort of out of the question for commercial payloads. ...
You thought wrong, then. ;)

I notice a pattern of people kind of automatically assuming radiation issues are worse than they actually are. And I definitely don't think you think this way, but many of those people then feel sort of proud of themselves for pointing out radiation issues as a sort of conversation stopper.
Hey, I didn't said it couldn't be done. I said I thought it was more expensive than economically viable. And, there was talk about the solar panels as the binding constraint. Apparently there's a way to avoid this by using in space annealing on the cells. And the GTO design might be different to minimize the passages through the belt. They might have also used mil hard parts, since they have already developed, and it's not like the users will take them down. In other words, the interesting part is how this smart cookies did it (or are going to do it).

Offline kevin-rf

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In other words, the interesting part is how this smart cookies did it (or are going to do it).

So who is going slip the schedule to the right first, Boeing or SpaceX?

SpaceX has it's hands full.

Boeing is introducing a new platform (though it is an existing platform with a bunch of ugly plumbing removed).
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Offline Seer

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I thought there wasn't enough thrust from electric propulsion to do gto transfer. I.e it would fall back to leo and the atmosphere.

I also asked about electric from leo and was told the radiation from the van allen belts made it to expensive.

Offline yinzer

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Raising the apogee of your orbit is more efficient if you do it while going fast - you can search for "Oberth Effect".  But in an elliptical orbit you spend a little time going fast near perigee and a lot of time going slow near apogee.  And since in-space electric propulsion has low thrust, this means you either do a bunch of small burns near perigee and spend the rest of your orbit soaking up radiation and paying interest on your satellite, or you give up efficiency.  Not to mention that in LEO you are probably going to spend more time in the earth's shadow so you don't have power and the thermal environment is very different from GEO because the warm earth is filling a lot of the sky.

At the end of the day, using electric propulsion to transfer from GTO to GEO is a smaller change from previous practice and has a greater cost-to-benefit ratio than going all the way from LEO.
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Offline Robotbeat

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I thought there wasn't enough thrust from electric propulsion to do gto transfer. I.e it would fall back to leo and the atmosphere.

I also asked about electric from leo and was told the radiation from the van allen belts made it to expensive.
I don't think the satellites are going all the way from LEO. They are going from a geosynchronous transfer orbit which does go through the Van Allen belts to a certain extent (well, even ISS does that to a limited extent... the belts are continuous), but the belts only are most intense in a narrow band (which the satellites will only spend a relatively small amount of time in for each orbit).
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Offline ugordan

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I don't think the satellites are going all the way from LEO. They are going from a geosynchronous transfer orbit

What makes you think an F9 will have enough oomph to send *two* (albeit lighter weight) comsats all the way to a GEO apogee?

Offline Robotbeat

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I don't think the satellites are going all the way from LEO. They are going from a geosynchronous transfer orbit

What makes you think an F9 will have enough oomph to send *two* (albeit lighter weight) comsats all the way to a GEO apogee?
I don't. I mean GTO in the general sense, not in the sense of a benchmark 1500m/s-to-GSO orbit. Because they are using high-Isp propulsion for insertion, they aren't terribly sensitive to small performance shortfalls. Any extra oomph the F9 can give them will allow them to reduce the time until they can start service. (They can trade delta-v for delta-t or vice versa by changing what part of the orbit they thrust, even given a fixed amount of propellant for that part of the flight.)
« Last Edit: 03/13/2012 08:42 pm by Robotbeat »
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Offline tigerade

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Ah, the launch manifest keeps growing and growing and yet the launch rate stays the same.  Not sure how this'll work out.

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