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Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatari communication satellite Es'hail-2 was successfully launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.
SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket to send Qatar's Es'hail-2 communications satellite into orbit.
The two-stage rocket, which included a first stage booster flying for its second time, lifted off at 3.46pm Eastern time, sending the satellite towards a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) 35,000 kilometers above Earth.
About nine minutes after lift-off, the first stage of the rocket then touched down beautifully on the drone ship"Of Course I Still Love You" off the coast of Cape Canaveral, ready to fly again in future.
Built in Japan by the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO), the Es'hail-2 satellite is designed to boost internet and TV coverage in the Middle East and North Africa. It also boasts"anti-jamming protecting", and is the follow-up to the Es'hail-1 satellite, which was launched in 2013.
The satellite offers Ku-band capacity for the 25.5 degree East/ 26 degree East orbital slot.
Carrying a payload of Ka and Ku-band transponders, the spacecraft will be used for broadcasting and secure communications to Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) devices.
It won't just be relaying cat videos to the Earth, though. The satellite also contains two radio transponders, which will enable amateur radio enthusiasts from Brazil to Thailand to communicate with each other. These are the first amateur radio antennae to be sent to GTO, noted Spaceflight Now.
"The fully-owned satellite company has a ground control station at Al Ghuwairia spreading over 50,000 square metres. The ground control station will be inaugurated at the end of this year, and will be able to broadcast content from Qatar directly," Ministry of Transport and Communications said in a tweet.
Earlier before the launch, President and CEO of Es'hailSat Ali bin Ahmed al Kuwari said,"We are very excited about the launch of Es'hail-2, the second in our planned fleet of satellites. Launching rockets into space is an inherently risky business, but working with the extremely competent people at SpaceX, we are optimistic about the chances of a successful launch."
Qatar's earlier Es'hail-1 satellite was deployed in August 2013 in partnership with Eutelsat, a French telecommunications operator.
