Communications Satellites

GEOStar™ -2 & -3

Orbital is the world's leading supplier of 1.5 - 5.5 kilowatt commercial geosynchronous (GEO) communications satellites used to provide direct-to-home TV broadcasting, cable program distribution, business data network capacity, regional mobile communications and similar services.

Orbital's highly successful GEOStar-2 and -3 communications satellites provide up to 7.5 kW of payload power and can accommodate virtually all types of commercial communications payloads.

For many applications, the lighter weight, more affordable GEOStar-2 and -3 designs are attractive alternatives to the larger, more costly GEO satellites offered by other suppliers. Because Orbital STAR satellites are smaller and significantly less expensive to manufacture and launch, they are an ideal fit for established companies that wish add incremental capacity for their network or provide back-up capacity for key customers. In addition, GEOStar satellites are also well suited for businesses customers in the early stages of building their business.

Orbital entered the GEO satellite market in 1997 with the launch of our first GEOStar spacecraft, IndoStar-1. Since then, Orbital has evolved and improved the GEOStar platform. A list of spacecraft delivered or on order for delivery is below:

Current Programs

Iridium NEXT

Under a contract with Thales Alenia Space, Orbital will conduct integration and test services for Iridium NEXT, the next-generation satellite constellation of Iridium Communications Inc. Orbital will integrate the communications payloads and platforms for 81 low-Earth orbit Iridium NEXT satellites and test the systems at its satellite manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona.

ORBCOMM

Orbital is also a pioneer in low-Earth Orbit communications satellites, having conceived, built and deployed the ORBCOMM network. ORBCOMM was the first global communications network to employ a constellation of LEO satellites. From 1994 -1999 the company built and deployed 35 satellites, integrated five “gateway” ground stations and a network operations center to manage the satellites and process their data.

The narrow-band ORBCOMM network is utilized to send and receive short messages to mobile assets such as trucks, trailers, marine vessels, railcars and other remote assets that are often out of reach of terrestrial communications networks. In 2007, Orbital delivered six communications subsystems to ORBCOMM, Inc. for satellites which were launched in 2008 to augment the ORBCOMM in-orbit fleet.

Check Out

• Orbital Corporate Overview
• GEOStar-2 Bus Fact Sheet
• GEOStar Hosted Payloads Fact Sheet