Telstar 18 (Apstar 5) is a Russian communications satellite that was launched by a Zenit-3SL rocket from the Ocean Odyssey platform floating on the equatorial Pacific Ocean at 04:00 UT on 29 June 2004. It was intended to be a geostationary satellite, but due to the premature stoppage of the boost from the final DM-SL stage, it ended at 21000 km, far below the geostationary orbit. Trim-maneuver thrusters attached to the satellite were used to slowly raise to geostationary orbit to an approximately geostationary status at 36000 km.
Telstar 18 is designed for a mission life of 13 years.[1] Although fuel use from trim-maneuver thrusters can impact adversely the useful lifespan of a geostationary. The satellite was projected to have enough fuel left to exceed the planned 13 year lifetime.[2]
Telstar 18 provides Ku-band voice, video and data services to China, Hawaii, and East Asia. It also provides C-band services to other parts of the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and Hawaii. The satellite is used to provide space-based Internet backbone services for the main cities of Asia to and from the United States through Hawaii.[1]
| |
---|---|
January |
|
February |
|
March |
|
April |
|
May |
|
June |
|
July |
|
August |
|
September |
|
October |
|
November |
|
December |
|
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). |
![]() | This article related to Canadian broadcasting is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
![]() | This article about one or more communications satellites is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |