Sinosat
Sino Satellite Communications was formed in 1994 with Chinese participation of China Aerospace Corp (CASC), Commission of Defence Science & Technology [COSTIND], People's Bank of China and the Government of Shanghai. Sino Satellite was formed in an effort to overturn ChinaSat's domination [along with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications] of the Chinese satellite communications market.
During 1993-1994 DASA and Sinosat formed a new venture named EuraSpace to develop a follow-on DFH-3 spacecraft. China remains heavily dependent on American companies, such as Lockheed Martin, Hughes and Loral, as suppliers of telecommunications satellites. To gain greater access to spacecraft technology, the China Aerospace Corporation is working with Daimler Benz Aerospace's Dornier Satellite Systeme and Aerospatiale's Espace and Defense Branch on Sinosat-1.
The system is 90 percent financed by German banks, and the European partners agreed to assembly and testing of the new Sinosat-1 taking place in China. The preliminary design for Sinosat envisioned as many as 12 C-band and six Ku-band transponders initially with growth up to 30 transponders. The spacecraft was likely to be 50% more massive than DFH-3, but the first launch was not anticipated until 1997 (References 236, 239-243).
Subsequently, Aérospatiale built Sinosat 1 at its facilities in Cannes, with delivery in november 1997 of the satellite to the customer, the Chinese-German company Euraspace, acting on behalf of Sinosatcom, a Chinese company. This was the fifth satellite using the Spacebus 3000 platform.
It is a powerful three-axis satellite with a liftoff weight of 2,820kg. Its solar array, spanning 26 meters, supplies over 5 kW to the payload of twenty-four C-band channels (36 MHz) and fourteen Ku-band channels (54 MHz). Three antennas, including two deployable antennas measuring 1.6 and 1.8 meters in diameter, and a 1m in diameter fixed antenna, cover the targeted zone from an orbital position at 110.5°ree; East on the geostationary orbit, during a life span exceeding 15 years.
The 3B Long March launcher launched the satellite from the Xichang launch site in the People's Republic of China in July 1998 [after a delay from 25 January 1998]. The satellite provides a range of telecommunications services ( including television, telephony, and inter-banking data transmission) covering all China, the Indo-Chinese peninsula, Indonesia and the Philippines. The satellite will transmit data for the Peoples Bank of China, one of Sinosatcom's major customers.
Dongfanghong-IV / Sinosat-II
The Dongfanghong-IV platform will be first used to develop a satellite -- Sinosat-II -- for a Beijing-based operator, Sino Satellite Communications Co, to meet the country's mounting demands for communications and broadcasting, company president Cheng Guangren confirmed. Mindful of the disparities with similar industries in other space-faring nations, the State Council has approved a massive plan to develop China's new-generation communications satellite platform. The new models have longer life spans, are more reliable and have a higher capacity.
Investment in the platform to date has amounted to 1.3 billion yuan (US$156 million). Satellites based on this "most sophisticated" platform are expected to last for 15 years, carry up to 50 transponders and weigh about 5,100 kilograms at takeoff. Its end-of-life power output is expected to reach 10,000 watts, which will put it in line with the most advanced systems currently in use. China's newest platform will be capable of performing similar functions as the world's leading satellite platforms. That includes the world-leading Boeing702 of the Boeing Co, SB4000 of the Alcatel Space and A2100 of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems.
The Chinese platform could be used to develop large communication systems, live broadcast satellites and other types purposes. Ultimately, the new satellites will deliver cleaner signals to ground based platforms even if they use smaller antennas. The first satellite system and the first satellite -- Sinosat-II -- to be built on this platform will be launched in the first half of 2005. Satellites based on the new large-scale platform will find a niche in the global commercial satellite market. By early 2004 CASC was close to an agreement with APT Satellite Co Ltd in Hong Kong to supply a backup satellite based on the new platform for APSTAR VI, a telecommunications array scheduled to be launched later in the year.
