Inmarsat-4 F1 at 143° East

Inmarsat-4 F1 communications is operated by the British satellite operator Inmarsat. The satellite was constructed by EADS Astrium (Airbus Defense & Space) and is based on their Eurostar E3000 bus. It had a launch mass of 5,959kgs at launch and was designed for a lifespan of 13 years.

The Inmarsat-4 series is the fourth generation of satellites for the London-based global mobile satellite communications operator Inmarsat.

Designed to be around 100 times more powerful than the present generation and to provide a ten-fold increase in communications capacity, the satellites will support the new Broadband Global Area Network (B-GAN), that was introduced in 2004 for internet and intranet solutions, video on demand, video-conferencing, fax, e-mail, telephone and high-speed LAN access. Two of the satellites were launched in 2005 while the third remained on the ground as a spare until 2008, when it also was launched.

As prime contractor, EADS Astrium delivered both the platform (based on the high-power Eurostar-3000GM version of Astrium’s Eurostar-series) and the payload, including the on-board processor.

In addition, on Inmarsat-4 F3, a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) navigation package operating in C-band for uplink and L-band for downlink provides precision Global Positioning System-based guidance information to aircraft at thousands of airports and landing strips that lack such a capability today.

Inmarsat-4F1 was successfully launched on March 11^th, 2005 on an Atlas V rocket booster operated by Lockheed Martin (later to become United Launch Alliance) from the Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.

On 17 February 2018 Inmarsat-4 F1 experienced outage due to loss of attitude control.

Inmarsat-4 F1 at 143° East

EADS Astrium satelliite manufacturing

Atlas V Launch of Inmarsat-4 F1

Inmarsat-4 F1 at 143° East

Inmarsat-4 F1 at 143° East

Inmarsat-4 coverage map

Inmarsat Global C-band coverage