HELSINKI — China sent its ChinaSat-6E communications satellite toward geostationary orbit Thursday with a launch from Xichang spaceport.
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off into the night sky above Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 6:23 a.m. Eastern (1123 UTC), Nov. 9. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) confirmed launch success and the payload within an hour of launch.
ChinaSat-6E (Zhongxing-6E) entered its planned geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It will take over the radio and television broadcasting role of the ChinaSat-6B satellite launched in July 2007 and positioned at 115.5° East.
The launch is part of a series of replacements of aging geostationary satellites. In April last year a Long March 3B launched ChinaSat-6D to replace ChinaSat-6A, which suffered a lifetime-shortening helium leak after launch. Chinasat-9C is expected to launch in 2025 to replace Chinasat-9, launched in 2008.
CASC says ChinaSat-6E will mainly cover China, Southeast Asia, Australia and other regions. It was also stated to be part of space-based infrastructure for China’s Belt and Road initiative and construction of the “digital China” strategy.
The new C and Ku and other multiband broadcast communication ChinaSat-6E satellite is based on a DFH-4E bus, an enhanced version of the established DFH-4 geostationary platform developed by CASC’s China Academy of Space Technology (CAST).
The DFH-4E has a mass of around 5,500 kilograms and features hybrid electric- and chemical-propulsion. It has a mission lifetime of 15 years.
CAST has also developed the larger DFH-5 bus which requires the use of China’s largest launcher, the Long March 5. So far only one satellite based on the platform, Shijian-20, launched in 2019, is in orbit. The first to be launched, Shijian-18, was lost in the failure of the second Long March 5 launch in 2017.
The 56-meter-tall Long March 3B has long been China’s workhorse for launches to GTO. It…
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