{"id":15950,"date":"2015-11-04T23:58:01","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T15:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/giant-antenna-deploys-successfully-aboard-morelos-3\/"},"modified":"2015-11-04T23:58:01","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T15:58:01","slug":"giant-antenna-deploys-successfully-aboard-morelos-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/giant-antenna-deploys-successfully-aboard-morelos-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant antenna deploys successfully aboard Morelos 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s8kT7WlX_Yc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Mexico\u2019s advanced mobile communications satellite launched last month for humanitarian and national security uses has successfully blossomed in space.<\/p>\n<p>The $300 million Morelos 3 spacecraft was deployed Oct. 2 into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past month, the 11,685-pound satellite began using its onboard fuel supply by circularizing its orbit, achieving a  6-degree, inclined geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the planet.<\/p>\n<p>Then came news Tuesday that the craft\u2019s 72-foot-diameter unfurlable mesh antenna reflector had successfully expanded in space to provide mobile L-band communications. <\/p>\n<p>The craft was folded up neatly in a confined volume to fit inside the 14-foot-diameter rocket nose cone for launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe company Boeing Satellite Systems International, manufacturer of the Mexican Satellite System MEXSAT, confirmed to the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes that the stage of deployment of the solar panels, antennas and Ku-band and L-band satellite thermal radiators concluded successfully, leading to start test runs on orbit,\u201d SCT announced in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing built the spacecraft using its 702HP design that is powered by two 5-panel solar wings that stretch 135 feet tip-to-tip. The craft will operate on 14 kilowatts of power at the start of its 15-year life.<\/p>\n<p>The craft is designed to provide 3G+ cellular voice and data services to Mexican military forces, emergency responders, rural educators and hospitals in remote parts of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Special light-weight terminals and smartphones on land, at sea and in the air will connect to the telecommunications services.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing is expected to hand control of Morelos 3 to Mexican operators in December in preparation for the start of use by the middle of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Morelos 3 replaces the capabilities originally planned from the Centenario satellite, which was destroyed in a Russian Proton rocket failure in May.<\/p>\n<p>See earlier Morelos 3 coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Our Atlas archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Mexico\u2019s advanced mobile communications satellite launched last month for humanitarian and national security uses has successfully blossomed in space. The $300 million Morelos 3 spacecraft was deployed Oct. 2 into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Over the past month, the 11,685-pound [&hellip;]<\/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":[724,3907,670,590,472,1867,3908,3909],"class_list":["post-15950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-059","tag-boeing","tag-communications","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-mexico","tag-mexsat","tag-morelos-3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15950"}],"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=15950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}