MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine satellite for regional communications to be launched 2012

French Guiana Center and the powerful Ariane 5

Arianespace will launch the Arsat-1 satellite for Argentine satellite operator Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales Sociedad Anonima, or Arsat, in mid-2012 under a contract announced June 28 by the Evry, France-based launch services provider.

Arsat-1, expected to weigh 2,900 kilograms at launch, will be lofted from Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport in French Guiana either as a co-passenger aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket or as the sole payload aboard a Russian-built Soyuz rocket. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The satellite is under construction by Invap of Argentina, with Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, both of Europe, as major equipment suppliers, Arianespace said in a press release. It will be equipped with 24 Ku-band transponders of various types and provide services including telephone and television transmissions across Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. It is expected to be operational for 15 years.

“We are very pleased with our selection of Arianespace to launch the first geostationary satellite built in Argentina,” Pablo Tognetti, chairman and chief executive of Arsat, said in a prepared statement. “Our selection is the result of an international bid, in which price, excellence in space transportation and mission success ratios were critical in our decision.”

Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said the company was “particularly pride to be able to service a South American company”.

Arsat-1 will become the second Argentine satellite to be launched by Arianespace following on the Nahuel 1A in 1997.

Meanwhile, an Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched a pair of satellites, one for South Korea and one for the Arabsat organization of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 26 from the Guiana Space Center.