It said the transmission capacity of the satellite to be launched in June is double that of current Chinese
communications satellites, allowing more television channels and clearer programmes to be transmitted.
WGS is a multi-service program that leverages commercial methods and technological advances in the satellite industry to rapidly design, build, launch, and support a constellation of highly capable military
communications satellites. The WGS system is composed of three principal segments: space segment (satellites), control segment (operators) and terminal segment (users).
Scores of companies have licenses for broadcasting on the new
communications satellite that is set to bow this year.
With 2,000
communications satellites launched since the last solar maximum, astronauts taking longer trips in space, and a society ever more dependent on computers, cell phones, automated banking systems, and other electronic equipment, Earth has never been as vulnerable to the havoc that an electric disturbance from the sun can wreak.
Arthur Clark, a British science fiction writer ("2001: A Space Odyessy") suggested the possibility of a
communications satellite back in 1946, pointing out that if a satellite circled the world at 22,300 miles it would take exactly 24 hours to complete an orbit.
The British satellite communications company (http://www.ibtimes.com/spacex-loses-inmarsat-ean-satellite-launch-contract-arianespace-2457674) took away some business from SpaceX , following the September launch pad explosion which destroyed both a Falcon 9 rocket and its payload, a Spacecom
communications satellite. That accident delayed all the launches scheduled by SpaceX while the company investigated the incident and got clearance to fly again.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has played a role in the placement of the US Navy's fifth mobile user objective system (MUOS) secure, tactical
communications satellite into orbit, the company said.
The Russian Express-AM6
communications satellite has separated from the Briz-M booster and was deployed into the calculated orbit, the press service of Russia's Roscosmos Federal Space Agency told TASS.
Israel launched its
communications satellite into orbit from Russia's Baikonur space-launch facility in Kazakhstan.
Summary: China has launched a French-made
communications satellite into space.
It is pertaining to mention here that the Pakistan's first
Communications Satellite PAKSAT-1R, as a part of Pakistan's Space Programme-2040, launched on board China's Satellite Launch Vehicle.