ORBITAL INTRODUCES THE GEOSTAR-3 COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE PLATFORM
-- Medium-Class Satellite Enables Company to Address Broader Market Opportunities for FSS, DTH and HTS Applications With Up To 8 Kilowatts of Payload Power --
-- Orbital to Offer New Hybrid Design Combining Traditional and Electric Propulsion for Orbit Raising and Station Keeping --
(Dulles, VA 10 March 2014) – Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today introduced its GEOStar-3TM satellite platform, stating the program is now ready for delivery to commercial satellite operators on production schedules of 24 to 27 months. The medium-class GEOStar-3 platform is an extension of Orbital’s highly successful small-class GEOStar-2 bus that has led its market niche for the past decade. This evolutionary technology upgrade represents an incremental expansion of the company’s flight-proven, low-risk product line, based on a standard platform with configure-to-order payload flexibility to maximize customer value for fixed satellite services (FSS), direct to home (DTH) and high throughput satellite (HTS) applications.
“The enhanced capacity, flexibility and scalability of the GEOStar-3 platform enables us to address the requirements of the medium-size satellite market, offering customers more payload power, higher throughput and better overall value,” said Mr. Christopher Richmond, Orbital’s Senior Vice President of its Communications Satellite business unit. “This product expands Orbital’s addressable market, while improving our reliability and delivery schedules to customers around the world, including the high-growth, high-throughput satellite segment.”
The GEOStar-3 platform incorporates key enhancements that evolved from the GEOStar-2 bus, including an upgraded electrical power system that boosts payload power capability from 5 kilowatts up to 8 kilowatts and a physically larger bus allowing the vehicle to support communications payloads weighing up to 800 kilograms.
The company is currently under contract to deliver the first GEOStar-3 in early 2016 and is in active negotiations with several other customers for additional orders, including for its new hybrid electric propulsion (EP) platform option. The hybrid GEOStar-3 design uses traditional chemical propulsion to reach orbit in a matter of days, not months like a full EP satellite, and then performs station-keeping operations for 15 years or more with EP, resulting in an optimum mass-efficient system.
Orbital also designed the GEOStar-3 platform to enable dual-launch configurations. The ability to stack two GEOStar satellites on a single launch vehicle significantly reduces the overall system cost and provides the widest array of launch options possible, a key benefit of the GEOStar-3 platform to Orbital’s customers.
The GEOStar-3 satellite will continue Orbital’s tradition of industry-leading short-cycle delivery schedules. The company’s small-class GEOStar-2 spacecraft are regularly delivered in 22 to 24 months and the company expects to deliver the medium-class GEOStar-3 spacecraft in 24 to 27 months. Like the GEOStar-2 satellite, the GEOStar-3 platform is designed for a service life of at least 15 years.
Sounds like a direct competitor to the Boeing 702 all electric variant. And perfect for launching on Falcon 9.
IIRC didn't some unnamed European customer ordered one back in 2012?
Sounds like a direct competitor to the Boeing 702 all electric variant. And perfect for launching on Falcon 9.
Does everything have to come back to Falcon 9. There are other launchers available.
Sounds like a direct competitor to the Boeing 702 all electric variant. And perfect for launching on Falcon 9.
Does everything have to come back to Falcon 9. Are launchers are available.
Well said
More interesting: What from Geostar 3 can be moved into Cygnus?
Have a feeling some of the Power system upgrades to Cygnus Program might have fed back the Geostar Program.
Sounds like a direct competitor to the Boeing 702 all electric variant. And perfect for launching on Falcon 9.
Does everything have to come back to Falcon 9. Are launchers are available.
They list most of the usual suspects (Arianne, Proton, etc). Unfortunately, I didn't see Antares listed.
Might not have the performance needed with the current upper stages from Wallops.
Might not have the performance needed with the current upper stages from Wallops.
Indeed. They mention dual-launch, and of the current vehicles, Falcon Heavy seems to be the best fit. R7 and Antares are too small, Ariane 5 is too big (expensive). Ariane 6 would be a good fit, too, but it doesn't exist, yet, and probably could also only single-launch.
Orbital always has the option of using their Antares if Falcon 9 is too heavy, but I've been following the #SATSHOW hashtag on twitter, and there is a /lot/ of lovin' on the Falcon 9 by SES, Eutelsat, etc. It's well-positioned to be a launch provider for the GEOSTAR-3 platform as the only domestic launch vehicle capable of competitively priced launch for the platform (and dual-launch is a design feature of GEOSTAR-3, as mentioned in the press release). Proton is more expensive, isn't domestic, and although it has an impressively long launch history, its reliability is questionable.
So THAT'S why I bring up the Falcon 9. GEOSTAR-3 and the all-electric Boeing 702-SP are perfectly sized forlaunch on Falcon 9 v1.1. I'm merely predicting that some of the earliest GEOSTAR-3 flights will be on Falcon 9. Orbital Sciences is in the enviable position of being able to probably make more profit off of SpaceX's commercial launches than SpaceX will.
What is the mass of GEOSTAR-3 on injection to GTO?
There's still another possibility. And it's to dual-stack within the new SYLDA 5-K in the Ariane 5ME. The satellite is just 3.0m to 3.9m, tall, and 2.9m x 2.3m wide. So two of those could fit under the SYLDA. It would mean that Ariane 5ME could launch three satellites. Since it's supposed to be able to put 12tonnes on GTO, that could be a 5tonnes + 2 x 3.5tonnes. BTW, it's actually 12.5, but SYLDA eats 0.5tonne.
