N-SAT-110

N-SAT-110, also known as JCSAT-7, JCSAT-110, Superbird-5 and Superbird-D, is a Japanese geostationary communications satellite which was operated by JSAT Corporation and Space Communications Corporation until both companies merged into SKY Perfect JSAT Group in 2008. It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 110° East, from where it is used to provide communications services to Japan.

Satellite description
The spacecraft was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin on the A2100AX satellite bus. It had a launch mass of  with a dry mass of  and a 15-year design life. As most satellites based on the A2100 platform, it uses a  LEROS-1C LAE for orbit raising.

When stowed for launch, the satellite was  high. Its dual wing solar panels gave a power generation capability of 8.3 kW at the end of its design life, with a span of  when deployed. With antennas deployed, its width was .

Its payload is composed of twenty-four 36 MHz Ku band transponders with a TWTA output power of 120 Watts per channel. With its total bandwidth of 864 GHz it is used primarily for multi-channel pay per view business.

History
By September 1997, both JCSAT and Space Communications Corporation (SCC) had requested the 110°East position.
The Japanese government made both companies share the 110°E position, and thus both made a joint order on November 20, 1998 for N-SAT-110 from Lockheed Martin. JCSAT used the JCSAT-7 designation for this satellite, while SCC used Superbird-5.

On October 6, 2000 at 23:01 UTC, an Ariane-42L successfully launched N-SAT-110 to a geostationary transfer orbit from Guiana Space Centre ELA-2. One hour later, at 00:04 UTC, October 7, the first signals from the satellite were successfully received from the Australia ground station. On October 14, 2000, at around 03:00 UTC, N-SAT-110 reached the geostationary orbit. Once it was put in orbit it was renamed as JCSAT-110 by JCSAT and Superbird-D by SCC.

During 2008, JSAT Corporation and Space Communications Corporation merged into SKY Perfect JSAT Group.

See also

2000 in spaceflight

References

Category:Communications satellites of Japan
Category:Spacecraft launched in 2000
Category:Satellites using the A2100 bus
Category:2000 in Japan