NigComSat-1

NigComSat-1 was a Nigerian communication satellite. The initial contract to build the satellite was signed in 2004. It became the third African geosynchronous communication satellite, when it was launched at 16:01 UTC on 13 May 2007, aboard a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China. The spacecraft was operated by Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT). On November 11, 2008, NigComSat-1 failed in orbit after running out of power due to an anomaly in its solar array.

NigComSat-1
Mission typeCommunication
OperatorNIGCOMSAT
COSPAR ID2007-018A
SATCAT no.31395
Mission durationPlanned: 15 years
Achieved: 18 months
Spacecraft properties
BusDFH-4
ManufacturerCGWIC
Launch mass5,150 kilograms (11,350 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date13 May 2007, 16:01 (2007-05-13UTC16:01Z) UTC
RocketLong March 3B
Launch siteXichang
End of mission
DisposalFailed
Last contact11 November 2008 (2008-11-12)
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeGeostationary
Longitude42.5° East[1]
Perigee altitude35,782 kilometres (22,234 mi)[1]
Apogee altitude35,789 kilometres (22,238 mi)[1]
Inclination0.1 degrees[1]
Period24 hours
 

Launch

The satellite, which is the third Nigerian satellite to be placed into orbit, was launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit and subsequently it was successfully inserted into a geosynchronous orbit, positioned at 42.5oE. It had a launch mass of 5,150 kg, and had an expected service life of 15 years.

Specifications

It was based on the Chinese DFH-4 satellite bus, and carries a variety of transponders:

Its design was to provide coverage to many parts of Africa on C-band and Ku-band, a global navigation beam on L-band and the Ka-band transponders with spot beams over Nigeria, South Africa and Europe.

China's satellite export business

NigcomSat-1 represented a milestone for China's satellite export business. For the first time the China Great Wall Industry Corporation provided all aspects of in-orbit delivery of a satellite to an international customer. This included satellite manufacture, launch services, ground station construction, project financing, insurance and training.[2]

Failure and replacement

On 10 November 2008 (0900 UTC), the satellite was reportedly switched off for analysis and to avoid a possible collision with other satellites. According to Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, it was put into "emergency mode operation in order to effect mitigation and repairs".[3] The satellite eventually failed after losing power on 11 November 2008.

On March 24, 2009, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, NigComSat Ltd. and CGWIC signed a further contract for the in-orbit delivery of the NigComSat-1R satellite. NigComSat-1R also uses the DFH-4 satellite platform with improvements over the previous satellite, and was delivered in the fourth quarter of 2011 as a replacement for the failed NigComSat-1. It was successfully launched on December 19, 2011.[4]

gollark: Okay. It's complicated and relies on many poorly designed bits of potatOS architecture.
gollark: Do you REALLY want to know why it keeps increasing?
gollark: Oh, that's more than I thought, hmmmm.
gollark: The automatic storage cleanup thing is honestly not that great because it's rarely seriously tested.
gollark: Yes, it does that.

References
  1. Encyclopedia Astronautica - CZ-3B Archived 2008-03-19 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "CGWIC News". CGWIC.
  3. "'Technical problems' shut down Nigerian satellite". AFP. 2008-11-12. Archived from the original on 2011-01-04.
  4. "Nigcomsat-1 Program --- In-Orbit Delivery Program --- Communications Satellite --- CGWIC". www.cgwic.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.