Inmarsat’s second I-5 satellite launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Inmarsat’s second I-5 satellite for its Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band service was launched successfully from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:31hrs GMT on Sunday February 1.
Through a series of five burns, the rocket carried the orbital unit first to a circular parking orbit, followed by intermediate and transfer orbits, and finally into a super-synchronous transfer orbit.
Separation of I-5 F2 and release into geosynchronous orbit occurred at 04:02 GMT on 1 February, at which point control of the satellite passed to Inmarsat’s mission team in London and the launch mission was declared a success.
The second Boeing-built satellite has now sent its first signals from orbit.
Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat, said: “The successful launch of our second Inmarsat-5 satellite by Proton is a significant step forward on our journey to deliver the world’s first globally available, high speed mobile broadband service.
“Our first GX satellite entered commercial service in July 2014 and has since been delivering an excellent service to our customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. With Inmarsat-5 F3 expected for launch by Proton in the coming months, we are on schedule to achieve full global coverage early in the second half of 2015.
“This is a great achievement and I would like to pay tribute to the skill and expertise of Inmarsat’s engineering teams and all our employees involved in the design, development, manufacturing, testing and launch. It is their dedication, alongside the outstanding support we have received from our manufacturing and launch partners – Boeing and ILS – which has helped deliver such a successful outcome.”
Launched on an International Launch Services Proton Breeze M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 1 at 7:31 a.m. EST, controllers confirmed the satellite was operating normally approximately 15 and a half hours later.
Over the coming weeks, the Inmarsat operations team will command the satellite to perform a series of manoeuvres to raise Inmarsat-5 F2 to a geo-synchronous elliptical orbit, while towards the end of the month, the satellite will have completed deployment of its solar arrays and reflectors.
This will be followed by the electrical orbit-raising phase, taking the spacecraft to its final geostationary orbit. This is scheduled to be completed by the end of March, ready for the start of payload testing at the beginning of April.
The Inmarsat-5 satellite series will enable services that include worldwide in-flight connectivity for airline passengers with high-resolution video, voice and data streaming.
A third Inmarsat-5 satellite is scheduled for launch in the first half of this year, completing the Global Xpress constellation.
A fourth Inmarsat-5 satellite, scheduled for delivery in 2016, is in production in El Segundo, California.
Inmarsat-5 specifications:
Each of the satellites has:
- The I-5 body – at 6.98 metres (22.9ft), the height of a double decker bus
- User beams – 89 Ka-band beams generated by two transmit and two receive apertures
- Spot beams – six steerable spot beams to direct additional capacity where it is needed
- Solar arrays – a wingspan of 33.8 metres (111ft)
- Solar panels – five panels of ultra-triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells generate 15 kW of power at start of service and 13.8 kW by end of life
- Station-keeping thrusters – a xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS) handles in-orbit manoeuvring
- Launch mass – 6,100kg
- Mission lifespan – 15 years
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