RCA Astro Weather Satellites

 

RCA ASTRO COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES

 

 

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RCA entered the commercial communications satellite market with SATCOM-1 (December 1975) and -2 (March 1976), which doubled the traffic by frequency re-use using cross-polarization and became the new standard for the communications satellite industry. Next came ANIK-B (Dec 1978), the first commercial dual-band satellite operating at both C and Ku-Bands, and then the second generation of SATCOMS which increased channel reliability and extended satellite life to ten years. This culminated in several generic designs, such as Series 3000, Series 4000, Series 5000, Series 7000 and A2100. The last major communications project was ASTROLINK, a global network of satellites to provide flexible coverage worldwide Internet access direct to users.

A list of the RCA ASTRO Commercial Communications satellites follows:

 

RCA ASTRO COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES

Spacecraft

Date Launched

Remarks

SATCOM-1 12-Dec-75 Retired 01-Jul-84
SATCOM-2 26-Mar-76 Retired 05-Feb-85
BSE (YURI) 08-Apr-78
ANIK-B 15-Dec-787 First C & Ku-band hybrid - retired 15-Dec-86
SATCOM-3 06-Dec-79 AKM failure
SATCOM-3R 19-Nov-81 Retired 29-Nov-91
SATCOM-4 15-Jan-83 Retired 04-Dec-91
Aurora-1 (SATCOM-5) 27-Oct-82 First all solid-state - retired 27-Msr-91
SATCOM-1R (6) 11-Apr-83 First use of EHT thruster - retired 21-Dec-92
SATCOM-2R (7) 08-Sep-83 Retired 03-Mar-95
BS-2A 23-Jan-84
Spacenet-1 22-May-84 First Ariane launch - S/C sold Apr 93 to APC for service to China
Spacenet-2 09-Nov-84
GSTAR-1 07-May-85
ASC-1 27-Aug-85
Spacenet-3 12-Sep-85 Shuttle launch. Retired 06-Sep-94
SATCOM-K2 26-Nov-85 Launch vehicle failure
SATCOM-K1 12-Jan-86 First US medium power DBS
BS-2B 12-Feb-86
GSTAR-2 (F3) 28-Mar-86 Carried GEOSTAR-R1 package
Spacenet-3R 11-Mar-88
PAS-1 15-Jun-88 First Ariane-4 flight
GSTAR-3 08-Sep-88 Carried dGEOSTAR-R2 package
ASTRA-1A 10-Dec-88 First European medium power DBS for SES Luxembourg
BS-2X 22-Feb-90 Launch vehicle failure
BS-3A (Yuri-3A) 28-Aug-90
GSTAR-4 (F1) 20-Nov-90
SATCOM-C1 (I) 20-Nov-90 Co-passenger with GSTAR-4
ASTRA-1B 02-Mar-91 for SES Luxembourg
ANIK-E2 04-Apr-91 Temporarily out of servoice 20-Jan-94. Recovered on 21-Jun-94. Fully operational on 01-Aug-94
Spacenet-4 (ASC-2) 12-Apr-91
BS-3H 18-Apr-91/td> Launch vehicle failure
Aurora-2 (SATCOM-C5) 29-May-91
BS-3B (Yuri-3B) 25-Aug-91
ANIK-E1 16-Sep-91
Intelsat-K 09-Jun-92 First Atlas-2A flight
SATCOM-C4 (F1) 31-Aug-92
SATCOM-C3 (F2) 10-Sep-92
ASTRA-1C 12-May-93 STS launch - Discovery
ACTS/TOS 12-Sep-93 First Series 7000 launch. First Atlas IIAS launch.
Telstar-401 15-Dec-93 First use of arcjets in space
BS-3N 08-Jul-94
Koreasat-K1 05-Aug-95 s/c launch sequence failure
Telstar 402 09-Sep-94
INMARSAT-F1 ---Sep-94
INMARSAT-F2 ---Jan-95
INMARSAT-F3 ---May-95
INMARSAT-F4 ---Sep-95
Telstar 402R (403) 23-Sep-95 First Long March launch
AsiaSat-2 28-Nov-95 Series 7000
Milstar F2 06-Nov-95 Military communications satellite
ECHOSTAR-1 28-Dec-95 Direct Broadcast satellite
Koreasat-2 14-Jan-96
INMARSAT-3 (F1) 03-Apr-96 Maritime mobile communications
ECHOSTAR-4 08-May-96 Direct Broadcast satellite
INMARSAT-3 (F2) 06-Sep-96 Maritime mobile communications
GE-1 09-Sep-96 Launched from shuttle
INMARSAT-3 (F3) 18-Dec-96 Maritime mobile communications
ECHOSTAR-2 11-Sep-96 Direct Broadcast satellite
GE-2 30-Jan-97 Launched from Shuttle
INTELSAT 801 27-Feb-97
INMARSAT-3 (f4) 03-Jun-97
INTELSAT-802 25-Jun-97
GE-3 04-Sep-97
INTELSAT-803 23-Sep-97
ECHOSTAR-3 05-Oct-97
INTELSAT-804 21-Dec-97
INTELSAT-806 27-Feb-98
INTELSAT-805 18-Jun-98 Proton launch vehicle
GE-5 28-Oct-98 Direct Broadcast satellite
ECHOSTAR-5 23-Sep-99
LMI-1 27-Sep-99
GE-4 13-Nov-99
ACeS (GARUDA) 12-Feb-00 Proton launch vehicle

 


Copyright © Ed Elizondo   - All Rights Reserved / Todos los derechos reservados
( last updated / actualizado 14-Dec-2021)