YahSat
Al Yah Satellite Communications (Yahsat) is a satellite communications company and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Government’s strategic investment company, Mubadala Development Company. The company offers voice, data, video and Internet services for broadcast, Internet and VSAT users for both private and government organizations.
History
of YahSat
Yahsat was founded in January 2008. The company had an aim of developing, operating and using multi-purpose (Government and commercial) communications satellite systems for the EMEA and South-West Asia regions.
In August 2007, Yahsat approved a consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia (aka Thales Alenia Space) to construct Yahsat's own satellites. The manufacturing took 36 months to be completed in Europe. Arianespace was appointed to launch the first satellite Y1A which is currently positioned at 52.5° East.
In April 2008, Yahsat signed a 15-year lease agreement with the UAE Armed Forces, as Yahsat’s first government customer to provide secure satellite communications in the UAE. As part of this contract, Yahsat will supply the ground terminals and gateway infrastructure for satellite network services.
In April 2009 Yahsat entered into a partnership with European satellite operator SES to create a new company operating under the brand name YahLive offering Direct-to-Home (DTH) television capacity and services to various countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asian region.
On April 22nd 2011 Arianespace launched Yahsat’s first satellite (Y1A) from the European Space Center in Kourou, French Guyana.
YahSat’s second satellite (Y1B), weighing approx. 6 tons, was launched by launch operator International Launch Services (ILS) on a Proton Breeze M launch vehicle from the Baikonour Kosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan in April 2012.
On April 26th 2018 YahSat acquired leading mobile satellite communications company Thuraya, based in UAE. Thuraya is operating two satellites, Thuraya-2 and Thuraya-3 (Thuraya-1 satellite was EOL in May 2007) all built by Boeing Commercial Satellite Services (BCSS) serving more than 140 countries. The satellites will join the Yahsat fleet, expanding its satellite fleet to five spacecraft. The combination of geostationary satellites operating in the C-, Ka-, Ku- and L-bands will jointly cover the EMEA region, the Middle East, South America, and Asia, providing a broad range of fixed and mobile satellite services spanning voice and data communications to both commercial and government sectors including energy, media, marine, government and NGO’s.
Thuraya-1 was positioned above Korea for testing purposes. It was launched on October 21st 2000 by Sea Launch launch operator on a Zenit 3SL rocket. The spacecraft was declared EOL in May 2007.
Thuraya-2 was launched by Sea Launch on June 10th 2003. It is located at 44° E. The satellite can handle 13,750 simultaneous voice calls.
The third satellite, Thuraya-3, was planned for launch by Sea Launch in Q1 2007, and the start of Far East and Australia service was planned for 15 October 2007. The failure in January 2007 of the NSS-8 mission on another Sea Launch rocket led to a substantial delay in the launch of Thuraya-3, which was rescheduled for 14 November 2007, but the launch was postponed several times due to sea conditions. The launch occurred successfully on 15 January 2008. Thuraya-3 satellite is located at 98.5°.
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References:
www.yahsat.com
www.answers.com
www.wikipedia.com
www.mubadala.ae
www.youtube.com
www.ses.com
www.satellitetoday.com edition April 26th 2018
www.thuraya.com
Satellites
