Satellite first for Belarus

Belarus is set to launch its first communications satellite this Friday, January 15.

Known as Belintersat-1, it will be located at 51.5 degrees East and begin to provide services after three months of in-orbit testing.

Belintersat-1 will have 20 C-Band and 18 Ku-Band transponders, with four of the latter being 54 MHz rather than 36 MHz.

It will cover Europe, the Middle East, Africa and much of Asia.

Some capacity has already been pre-sold, including at least eight transponders to Chinese companies. Of these, five are for the African beam (C-Band), one for the Central African beam (Ku-Band) and two for the Global beam (C-Band).

Belintersat-1 has been developed with heavy investment from the Belarusian government and in partnership with a number of companies. They include Gilat Satellite Networks (Israel), iDirect (US) and China Satellite Communications Co.

Satellite first for Russia

The Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media (Minsvyaz) has announced the successful launch of the Express-AM8 satellite.

Located at 14 degrees West, it will cover the European part of Russia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and – for the first time ever for a Russian communications satellite – Latin America.

Express-AM8 is equipped with C, Ku and L band transponders and has a lifetime of 15 years. It was funded from the state budget and built by Thales Alenia Space.

Russia plans a further satellite launch before the end of the year. It will be known as Express-AMU1 and provide broadcasting and telecom services to Russia, Europe and Africa.

1,400 satellites to launch by 2024

Around 140 satellites with a launch mass over 50kg will be launched each year for the next decade.

The forecast from Eurosconsult’s Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2024 forecasts 1,400 satellites over the next 10 years at a value of $255 billion. Unlike the company’s previous report the number of satellites is due to grow more than the market value over the decade.

“The increase in satellite number would be significantly higher if two mega-constellation projects for small communications satellites were included in the forecast,” said Rachel Villain, Principal Advisor at Euroconsult and editor of the report. “The 1,400 satellite count over the decade already includes 350 satellites to be deployed by ten commercial constellations into low or medium Earth orbits for communication or Earth observation.”

In the commercial space sector, Euroconsult anticipates a total of 550 satellites to be launched over the decade by 40 companies. Most of these satellites will be for the replacement of the communications capacity currently in orbit. 80% of the commercial space market remains concentrated in geostationary orbit, the destination of 300+ satellites operated by 30 companies for communications and broadcasting services.

But it is governmental satellites that will be responsible for 75% of the $255 billion. 90% of that market is down to ten countries with an established space industry; the United States, Russia, Europe (France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain), China, Japan and India.