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Product Name: Thuraya-2, 3
Product Description
The Thuraya mobile communications system serves a region of 2.3 billion
people. Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS) built the complete turnkey system under
a contract signed on Sept. 11, 1997. This included the manufacture and October
2000 launch of Thuraya-1, a high-power Boeing GEM satellite, plus a second
spacecraft, ground facilities and user handsets. The system began commercial
operations in mid-2001. Sea Launch successfully orbited Thuraya-2 on June 10,
2003. The Thuraya company has exercised an option to order Thuraya-3 as a
ground spare.
The satellites are built at Boeing Satellite Systems' Integration and Test
Complex near Los Angeles International Airport. Hughes Network Systems (HNS)
provided the ground facilities. HNS and Ascom of Switzerland are providing
235,000 handsets.
Stowed (left); In Orbit (right)
The Thuraya satellites are the first spacecraft in the Boeing GEM series.
This product line expands Boeing's offerings beyond satellite manufacturing,
to integrate a high-power geosynchronous satellite (derived from the Boeing
702 body-stabilized design) with a ground segment and user handsets, to
provide a range of cellular-like voice and data services over a large
geographic region. The Thuraya ground segment includes terrestrial gateways
plus a collocated network operations center and satellite control facility in
the UAE.
The Thuraya coverage area encompasses the Middle East, North and Central
Africa, Europe, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Thuraya offers GSM-compatible
mobile telephone services, transmitting and receiving calls through each
satellite's 12.25-meter-aperture reflector. The satellites employ
state-of-the-art on-board digital signal processing to create more than 200
spot beams that can be redirected on-orbit, allowing the Thuraya system to
adapt to business demands in real time. Calls are routed directly from one
handheld unit to another, or to a terrestrial network. The system has the
capacity for 13,750 simultaneous voice circuits.
THURAYA-2,3 SPECIFICATIONS
PAYLOAD
| L-band |
128 active elements
17-w SSPAs |
| C-band |
C-band 2 active (2 spare) feeder link
125-w TWTAs |
POWER
Solar
End of life
Panels |
11 kw
2 wings of 5 panels each w/triple-junction Gallium arsenide cells |
| Batteries |
328 A-hr cells |
PROPULSIONS
| Liquid apogee
Motor |
98 lbf (436N) |
Stationkeeping
thrusters
(bipropellant) |
2 x 2 lbf (10N)
8 x 5 lbf (22N) |
ANTENNAS
12.25 m (40 ft) x 16 m (52 ft) mesh
transmit-receive reflector
128-element dipole L-band feed array
1.27 m round dual-polarized shaped reflector for C-band communications
link |
DIMENSIONS
| In orbit |
L, solar arrays: 40.4 m (134 ft)
W, antennas: 17 m (55.7 ft) |
| Stowed |
H: 7.6 m (25 ft)
W: 3.2 m x 3.4 m
(10.5 ft x 11.1ft) |
Weights
Launch
In orbit
(beginning of life) |
5250 kg (11,578 lb)
3200 kg (7056 lb) |
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