Inmarsat to Launch Third Global Xpress Satellite Aug. 28
Inmarsat Incorporated plans to launch the anticipated third satellite of its Global Xpress network August 28 from Kazakhstan, a re-do launch after a previous attempt this summer was delayed. The third satellite is needed for complete coverage of the international company’s program to heighten global communication capabilities on land, at sea and in the air.
Inmarsat Incorporated plans to launch the anticipated third satellite of its Global Xpress network August 28 from Kazakhstan, a re-do launch after a previous attempt had been delayed.
The third satellite is needed for complete coverage of the international company’s program to heighten global communication capabilities on land, at sea and in the air.
Inmarsat-5 (I-5) F3, which will provide satellite communications coverage from its position over the Pacific Ocean, had been scheduled to launch in early June but was delayed following the failure in May of the Khrunichev-International Launch Services Russian Proton rocket as it dispatched a Mexican communications satellite.
The set of satellites will offer global, high-speed broadband service. I-5 F1 became operational in July 2014 and is positioned over the Indian Ocean covering Europe, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. I-5 F2, which launched in February, will become operational later this month and will cover the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, company officials announced in a statement.
Five years ago, Inmarsat embarked on a $1.6 billion effort to provide a single global Ka-band network of satellites. Boeing Satellite Systems International is building the Global Xpress constellation at its El Segundo, California, facility on the same manufacturing line as the Wideband Global SATCOM for the U.S. government.
Inmarsat plans to launch I-5 F4, designed as an in-orbit spare to Global Xpress but which will be operational, in late 2016 aboard a SpaceX system.
