Es’hailSat
Es’hailSat is the Satellite Operator from Qatar. Based in Doha, the company operates two satellites to serve broadcasters, businesses and governments.
Es’hailSat owned a majority stake in the Eutelsat-25B/Es’hail-1 satellite. The satellite was built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), aka Maxar Technologies, and shared a spacecraft platform with satellite operator Eutelsat. The spacecraft was successfully launched by launch operator Arianespace on 29th August 2013 and is located at 25,5° East. The satellite provides television, voice, Internet, corporate and government services across the MENA region and beyond. In 2018 Eutelsat sold its stake to Es’hailSat as the company was growing and waited for the 2nd satellite to be launched. The 156 million USD transaction gave the company full ownership of the spacecraft, now branding as Es’hail-1.
Es’hail-2, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (MELCO) in Japan, was launched on November 15th 2018 by launch operator SpaceX. The satellite was originally expected to launch in 2016, but was delayed by late revisions to the spacecraft and SpaceX’ Falcon 9 failures in 2015 and 2016.
Es’hail-2, located at 26° East, includes a linear transponder with a bandwidth of 250 kHz and 8MHz for the amateur radio satellite service, with uplink on 2.4 GHz (S-band) and downlink on 10.45 GHz (X-band).
Es’hailSat’s expansion plan will continue with more new satellites in prime hotspot locations, offering its customers flexible and reliable services. The company is also adopting the concept of “world-wide footprints” through partnerships with leading regional and international satellite operators around the world.
Company History
The company was established in 2010 by ictQATAR as an independent operating company to manage and develop Qatar’s presence in space. Trading under the name of Es’hailSat, the company will provide advanced satellite services to strategic stakeholders and commercial customers who value broadcasting and communications independence, quality service and wide geographical coverage.
Es’hail is the name of a star that becomes visible in the night sky of the Middle-East as summer turns to autumn. Traditionally, the sighting of Es’hail brings happiness as it means that winter is coming and that good weather will soon be with us.
New Teleport facilities
In 2015 Es’hailSat established a new teleport north of the city of Doha in Qatar. Promer Qatar Contracting Company designed and build the teleport, and completed the project in 2018. On February 14th 2019 Prime Minister and Interior Minister H. E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani inaugurating the Teleport Control Station.
Es’hailSat’s teleport will provide satellite Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) support and capacity management. The site will also support a wide range of teleport services such as uplink, downlink, contribution, multiplexing, encoding, play-out and broadcasting. Es’hailSat plans to provide back-up studios for TV channels and serve as a disaster-recovery facility for broadcasters. The site will be connected thru fiber with the key media broadcasters in Qatar.
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Resources
www.eshailsat.qa
www.satellitetoday.com edition Aug 25th, 2015
www.satbeams.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.satmagazine.com edition Nov 2012
www.mitsubishielectric.com
www.qatartodayonline.com edition Sept 14th, 2014
www.satellitemarkets.com
www.amsat.co.uk
www.spacenews.com edition August 9th 2018
www.thepeninsulaqatar.com edition February 15th 2019