Arianespace’s long-term relationship with Japan was highlighted by the announcement of a new launch agreement with this market’s leading private satellite operator – bringing total orders won by Arianespace to 27 out of the 36 Japanese commercial contracts open to competition.
Visiting Tokyo for the company’s yearly event, Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said Arianespace maintains its commitment to support Japan’s satellite telecommunications operators with reliable, flexible access to space.
The latest Japanese launch agreement is with SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation for the JCSAT-13 satellite, which will be orbited by an Ariane 5 in 2013 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.
“We are very grateful for this new launch contract with SKY Perfect JSAT, which comes almost exactly 20 years after Arianespace launched JCSAT-1 – Japan’s first commercial satellite, in March 1989,” Le Gall told attendees at the company’s Japan Week reception in Tokyo. “During these 20 years together, we have walked a long and mostly successful path. Together we have built mutual success, and I express my gratitude to all concerned who are assembled in this room tonight.”
JCSAT-13 will be manufactured by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems based on its A2100AX platform, and is to carry an all Ku-band payload incorporating 44 fixed high-power communication channels for uplink and downlink coverage over Japan, Asia and Oceania.
In addition, two steerable antennas on JCSAT-13 are to serve new and emerging markets. They also will offer quick response coverage for a designated geographic area upon short notice and, depending on capacity requirements, can provide multiple transponder relay capability in each steerable beam. The spacecraft will be located at 124 degrees East longitude, and is designed with extensive on-board switching for payload reconfiguration capability – allowing efficient use of the frequency plan.
Le Gall noted that Arianespace’s 2009 launch manifest includes an Ariane 5 mission for with JCSAT-12 this summer for SKY Perfect JSAT, which will be followed in 2010 by another Japanese telecommunications payload: BSAT-3b for the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation.
