Commercial Satellites Get Bigger-and Smaller

摘要

Geostationary commercial satellites have been getting noticeably bigger and more powerful over the past decade, to the point where now more than half of the large ones being ordered weigh in at over 5,000 kg. These spacecraft are based on buses such as Boeing's BSS-702, EADS Astrium's Eurostar 3000, Space Systems/Loral's LS-1300, and Thales Alenia Space's Spacebus 4000. Of roughly 22 Western-produced geostationary commercial satellites that were launched in 2008, 13 had a mass of more than 4,500 kg. Ten of these weighed over 5,000 kg. Four of the satellites-DirecTV-11, Galaxy 11, ICO-GEO 1, and Inmarsat 4-F3-were in the 6,000-kg class. The ICO-GEO 1, produced by Space Systems/Loral for ICO Global Communications, had a mass of 6,634 kg, making it the heaviest commercial satellite ever built and launched.