{"id":13818,"date":"2018-05-04T19:25:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T11:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/communications-satellite-launched-from-china-to-connect-asia-pacific\/"},"modified":"2018-05-04T19:25:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T11:25:45","slug":"communications-satellite-launched-from-china-to-connect-asia-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/communications-satellite-launched-from-china-to-connect-asia-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Communications satellite launched from China to connect Asia-Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off with the Apstar 6C communications satellite. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Chinese-built communications satellite owned by Hong Kong-based operator launched Thursday aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang space base in southwest China.<\/p>\n

The Apstar 6C communications craft lifted off at 1606 GMT (12:06 p.m. EDT) Thursday from Xichang, a launch site in a mountainous region in Sichuan province, according to statements released by Chinese launch authorities.<\/p>\n

The 184-foot-tall (56-meter) Long March 3B rocket, powered by a core stage and four liquid-fueled boosters, departed Xichang toward the east-southeast to propel the Apstar 6C satellite toward its perch in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.<\/p>\n

The Apstar 6C satellite deployed from the the Long March 3B\u2019s third stage less than a half-hour after liftoff. The spacecraft\u2019s own propulsion system will circularize its orbit at geostationary altitude in the coming weeks, where its velocity will match the speed of Earth\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n

Apstar 6C will enter service at 134 degrees east longitude for a planned 15-year mission, providing in-flight connectivity for airliners, video distribution services, direct-to-home television broadcasts, and cellular backhaul capacity across China, Mongolia and Southeast Asia. Equipped with 45 C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band transponders, Apstar 6C\u2019s wider coverage zone will stretch from Siberia and India in the north and west, to Australia and Hawaii in the south and east.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Apstar 6C during ground testing inside a Compact Antenna Test Range at the China Academy of Space Technology. Credit: Apstar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The spacecraft was built by the China Academy of Space Technology, based on the state-owned contractor\u2019s DFH-4 satellite design. APT Satellite, a communications satellite operator based in Hong Kong, ordered the Apstar 6C satellite to replace Apstar 6 telecom craft launched aboard a Long March 3B rocket in 2005.<\/p>\n

APT satellite, also known as Apstar, arranged for the spacecraft and launch services with China Great Wall Industry Corp., the government-owned organization charged with selling Long March rocket missions on the international commercial marketplace.<\/p>\n

Apstar has another Chinese-built satellite, Apstar 6D, under construction for launch on a Long March 3B rocket in 2019.<\/p>\n

The operator also has secured capacity on the Canadian-owned Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite launching next month on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Apstar calls its share of the Telstar 18 Vantage satellite\u2019s capacity Apstar 5C.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s flight was the 13th Chinese space launch of the year, and the 41st space launch worldwide so far in 2018.<\/p>\n

Chinese launch crews are readying another rocket, a Long March 4C, for launch May 8 from the Taiyuan space center carrying an Earth observation satellite into orbit.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Long March 3B rocket lifts off with the Apstar 6C communications satellite. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese-built communications satellite owned by Hong Kong-based operator launched Thursday aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang space base in southwest China. The Apstar 6C communications craft lifted off at 1606 GMT (12:06 p.m. EDT) Thursday from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2970,2179,135,2914,291,2264,2877,25],"class_list":["post-13818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-apstar-6c","tag-apt-satellite","tag-china","tag-china-academy-of-space-technology","tag-commercial-space","tag-dfh-4","tag-hong-kong","tag-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}