Advanced Television

GovSat-1 goes live

March 19, 2018

By Chris Forrester

Luxembourg’s GovSat-1 has been activated at 21.5 degree East. The satellite is a joint-venture between SES and the Luxembourg government. It was launched on January 31st by a SpaceX rocket.

The satellite is expected to be used by NATO and Europe’s military which will use its special X-band and Ka-band beams and exploiting the satellite’s global beams and mission-specific beams which cover West Africa, the Gulf region, Mediterranean area and its ‘anchor’ beam which covers most of Western Europe.

It enables an array of applications such as connectivity for theatres of operation, interconnection of institutional or defence sites, border control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), as well as various types of communications on the move for land and maritime missions. Dedicated entirely to governmental and institutional users, GovSat-1 features high-powered fully-steerable spot beams, an X-band Global beam and a total of sixty-eight transponder equivalent units

Étienne Schneider, Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy and Minister of Defence said: “I would like to thank all the members of the GovSat team for their hard work and commitment to bring the GovSat-1 spacecraft into operational service. This was the next major step in our public-private partnership with SES. GovSat-1 will further enhance Luxembourg’s excellent reputation in the global satellite communications market. The satellite will enable Luxembourg to meet its expanding obligations in European defence and to further diversify the national economy in a key technology sector.”

Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite