Malaysian telecommunications company MEASAT will launch its latest satellite, MEASAT-3d, aboard Arianespace’s heavy lift launcher, Ariane 5. The Airbus-built satellite will be launched in 2021 from Arianespace’s launch site at Kourou, French Guiana, to the Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The satellite will have a liftoff mass of 5,734 kg and an operational life of 19 years, and was built on Airbus’ Eurostar E3000 satellite bus. It will be positioned at 91.5 degrees East, and will be co-located with MEASAT-3a and MEASAT-3b.
MEASAT-3d will serve the growth requirements of 4G & 5G mobile networks in Malaysia while providing redundancy and additional distribution capacity for video in HD, 4K, and ultimately 8K in the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, MEASAT has five operational geostationary communications satellites – MEASAT-3, -3a, -3b, -5, and Africasat-1a, the latter being a joint venture with the Government of Azerbaijan under the state-owned entity Azercosmos.
Arianespace is slated to launch two satellites today – TIBA-1 for Egypt, and Inmarsat GX5; the launch was supposed to have taken place on 23 November, but was postponed to due a power supply anomaly in the ground segment of the launch complex.
