{"id":16735,"date":"2014-12-19T19:48:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T11:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/third-quartet-of-satellites-launched-for-o3b-networks\/"},"modified":"2014-12-19T19:48:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T11:48:35","slug":"third-quartet-of-satellites-launched-for-o3b-networks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/third-quartet-of-satellites-launched-for-o3b-networks\/","title":{"rendered":"Third quartet of satellites launched for O3b Networks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Soyuz rocket lifted off at 1837 GMT (1:37 p.m. EST; 3:37 p.m. local time) from the Guiana Space Center on the northern coast of South America. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 JM Guillon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Soyuz rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Thursday, launching four satellites owned by O3b Networks nearly 5,000 miles above Earth to expand access to high-speed Internet in the developing world.<\/p>\n

The addition of four new spacecraft grows O3b\u2019s fleet to a dozen satellites, and the company based in Britain\u2019s Channel Islands has plans to purchase and launch more satellites in the next few years.<\/p>\n

O3b kicked off commercial service Sept. 1, and the satellites launched Thursday will officially join the fleet in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s expanding our network,\u201d said Steve Collar, CEO of O3b Networks, in a phone interview from the French Guiana launch base. \u201cIt takes us to more than 100 gigabits up in orbit, and that allows us to bring a lot more capacity to our customers and cope with the demand that we\u2019re seeing in the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust within the last three months since we\u2019ve been in full commercial service, we\u2019ve seen pretty much every network that we\u2019ve got on the fleet today growing substantially, in some cases quadrupling throughput,\u201d Collar said.<\/p>\n

The Soyuz rocket\u2019s Fregat upper stage released the satellites into orbit more than two hours after liftoff from the Guiana Space Center \u2014 a European-run spaceport on the northern coast of South America \u2014 at 1837 GMT (1:37 p.m. EST).<\/p>\n

The launcher pivoted on to a trajectory east from French Guiana, climbing through scattered clouds before shedding four kerosene-fueled booster rockets two minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n

The three-stage rocket climbed into space over the Atlantic Ocean before deployed a Fregat-MT upper stage for a series of three main engine burns to position the O3b satellites in a targeted orbit about 7,830 kilometers \u2014 4,865 miles \u2014 above the equator.<\/p>\n

Each weighing about 700 kilograms, or 1,543 pounds, the spacecraft separated in pairs from a dispenser mounted on the Fregat upper stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to express my warm thanks to O3b Networks for once again placing their trust in Arianespace, so they can develop their offering of innovative telecommunications services in emerging markets,\u201d said Stephane Israel, chairman and CEO of Arianespace, which oversees Soyuz launch operations in French Guiana. \u201cWe are very proud of our role in continuing to support the growth of our customer O3b, following the start of commercial service on Sept 1. We share with them a core commitment to bringing the benefits of space down to people on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arianespace took extra time to confirm the outcome of Thursday\u2019s launch after officials prematurely announced a successful mission on the Soyuz rocket\u2019s last flight from French Guiana.<\/p>\n

During the botched Aug. 22 launch, the Soyuz rocket\u2019s Fregat upper stage put two European Galileo navigation satellites in the wrong orbit. Investigators blamed the anomaly on a frozen fuel line that disrupted the flow of propellant to two thrusters designed to properly point the Fregat rocket stage.<\/p>\n

After Fregat\u2019s manufacturer NPO Lavochkin agreed to change design documentation, technicians inspected Fregat stages already built and \u2014 where necessary \u2014 rerouted propellant lines and plumbing for the rocket stage\u2019s super-cold helium pressurization system to ensure the hydrazine fuel would not freeze on future missions.<\/p>\n

The European Commission and the European Space Agency planned to launch two more Galileo satellites aboard the final Soyuz flight of the year from French Guiana, but officials grounded the mission after the August launch failure. Galileo managers are now deciding whether to launch next set of navigation satellites in 2015 on a Soyuz\/Fregat rocket or aboard Europe\u2019s heavy-duty Ariane 5 booster.<\/p>\n

When the Soyuz launch opportunity became available, O3b jumped at the chance to launch its next quartet of satellites sooner than planned. The satellites were on pace to be ready for launch by the end of 2014.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of four O3b satellite in orbit. Credit: Thales Alenia Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe were a bit opportunistic there in that we had our four satellites ready to go, and this launch became available, so we were incredibly keen to get our satellites up,\u201d Collar said. \u201cWe originally anticipated Quarter 1 of next year but having them up before the end of the year just sets us up perfectly for 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

O3b will have 12 spacecraft in orbit when the satellites launched Thursday enter service \u2014 10 in active operations and two satellites held in reserve as spares.<\/p>\n

The first four satellites launched by O3b in June 2013 have a defect in their power systems, a fault that the company says could reduce each spacecraft\u2019s usable lifetime. O3b put two of the satellites into standby mode earlier this year in hopes of having them available in case the other two spacecraft fail.<\/p>\n

Four more satellites launched on a Soyuz flight in July, and the third group arrived in orbit Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis launch is a new major step in the deployment of the O3b constellation and provides further proof of Thales Alenia Space\u2019s leadership in telecom constellations,\u201d said Jean-Lo\u00efc Galle, president of Thales Alenia Space, which built the O3b satellites. \u201cWe are very proud to be working with our customer O3b on this exciting endeavor that provides telecommunications services and high-speed Internet connectivity to billions of people who were previously unable to access broadband services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ground controllers plan several days of testing on each spacecraft\u2019s primary systems, then they will guide the satellites into a slightly higher orbit to enter O3b\u2019s constellation. Officials plan several weeks of activations and checkout of the Ka-band communications transmitters and antennas.<\/p>\n

Collar said O3b has started the procurement of more satellites, eyeing a contract award in early 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis completes our initial constellation,\u201d Collar said. \u201cThis will keep us in good shape for the next couple of years while we work on and wait for the next satellites to be built and launched. We\u2019ve made sure that we have enough capacity on these 12 satellites to take us through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absolutely going to build more satellites,\u201d Collar said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got that procurement cycle already running. We\u2019re in the early stages of selecting both the vendor and satellite configuration.\u201d<\/p>\n

O3b filed a $300 million insurance claim after running into the power system problems with its four satellites, and the money could go toward payments for new spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the 100 gigabits in orbit right now, our next ambition is to take that to a terabit per second,\u201d Collar said. \u201cThat\u2019s the focus of our next-generation architecture. We expect to be under contract for new satellites in the early part of 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

O3b says one strength of its business \u2014 compared to traditional satellite telecom operators \u2014 is a low-latency Internet connection. The O3b satellites orbit at 5,000 miles, more than four times closer to Earth than geostationary satellites, reducing the amount of time it takes for a signal to bounce between the spacecraft and Earth.<\/p>\n

The satellites in equatorial orbit can reach customers between 45 degrees north and south latitude.<\/p>\n

Collar said O3b Networks is now beaming Internet connectivity to service providers and telecom operators in Africa and the Pacific islands, reaching customers in South Sudan, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Samoa and Nauru.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of demand coming from Africa and the Pacific, and we think that we will soon see that same demand in Latin America and Asia,\u201d Collar said.<\/p>\n

O3b receivers are also installed on three Royal Caribbean cruise ships to provide passengers with high-speed Internet, Collar said. The energy and government markets are also key business areas for O3b.<\/p>\n

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

The Soyuz rocket lifted off at 1837 GMT (1:37 p.m. EST; 3:37 p.m. local time) from the Guiana Space Center on the northern coast of South America. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 JM Guillon A Soyuz rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Thursday, launching four satellites owned by O3b Networks […]<\/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":[498,1763,2798,1773,2678,1302,4204],"class_list":["post-16735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arianespace","tag-fregat","tag-french-guiana","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-o3b-networks","tag-soyuz","tag-vs10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16735"}],"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=16735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}