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Arabsat celebrates 25th birthday
Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 09-02-2010
It was 25 years ago, on Feb 8 1985, very late in the evening, that Arabsat saw its very first satellite launched.
It was an Ariane 3 rocket that placed Arabsat 1A into orbit. The satellite itself was built by the then Aerospatiale, based on its Spacebus 100 core design. The craft carried a small military cargo (on behalf of NATO, and in S-band) and 25 C-band transponders.
However, immediately after launch one of the craft’s solar panels had problems. It was crippled thereafter. It operated from 19 deg East, but worse was to come. It had certain gyroscopic malfunctions and was mostly used as a back-up. By September 1991, and another malfunction, it began to drift off station. It failed completely in March 1992.
Arabsat’s second craft, 1B, went up in June 1985 and remained operational until 1992.
Behind the scenes the technical problems created more than a few headaches for its staff. Arabsat chairman Farid Khashoqgi admitted at yesterday’s Arabsat 5th Broadcasters Forum that there were times in the early years when they seriously considered closing the operation. “There were times when we couldn’t pay staff salaries,” he admitted.
Delegates heard that Arabsat now has plans for a further $1.6bn of new satellites, including an Arabsat ‘BADR 7’ craft.
© Rapid TV News 2010
