![]() Each of the three beams generated by the satellite covers an area of 14 million km2 (5.4 million miles2), covering all of Africa and the Middle East. ![]() The AfriStar satellite, for example, supplies more than 25 channels of news, music, entertainment and educational programming. Each has a design life of 12 years, although they have enough propellant on board to maintain the orbit for 15 years.Įach satellite will broadcast three beams, with more than 50 channels per beam. Once the system is completed, the AfriStar, AsiaStar and AmeriStar satellites will be located respectively at 21☎, 105☎ and 95°W in geostationary orbit. It is the largest of these spacecraft buses which have been used for the Eutelsat Hot Birds broadcasting satellites. The WorldSpace satellites use a common adaptable design that permits the spare craft to substitute for any of the three operational satellites.Īlcatel Space builds the communications payloads and integrates them with the flight-proven EuroStar 2000+ bus, built by Matra Marconi Space. ![]() This may be added to the fleet to serve the Russian and Eastern European market. A spare fourth satellite has also been ordered. The satellites are built by Alcatel Space, the industrial prime contractor responsible for the complete end-to-end WorldSpace system. Traditional satellites broadcast to dishes before the signals are turned to sound and images before being relayed to customers. USA-based WorldSpace sees a huge untapped market for satellite digital radio services, accomplished by transmitting from the three geostationary satellites directly to millions of L-band personal portable receivers. The third satellite, the Ameristar, is to be launched later this year. It was the first broadcast satellite for the WorldSpace system, which aims to cover emerging - and underserved and untapped - markets in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The AfriStar has the potential to send a tidal wave of programming into an area of the world where there is a drought of information. It was the first direct-to-receiver radio satellite to be launched and was described as "the biggest breakthrough since the invention of the radio". It provides a unique satellite radio service that transmits multilingual radio programming across the African continent. The WorldSpace service was inaugurated in October, using the AfriStar satellite. One of the two satellites it will carry will be the AsiaStar, the second in the three-satellite WorldSpace constellation, which provides the world's largest digital audio broadcast system. The next Ariane 5 launch in February will help to spread radio broadcasts across the world. WorldSpace plans to operate three satellites providing digital-quality sound to portable receivers
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