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SBS 6 was a geostationary communications satellite designed and manufactured by Hughes (now Boeing) on the HS-393 platform. It was originally ordered by Satellite Business Systems, which later sold it to Hughes Communications and was last used by Intelsat. It had a K_u band payload and operated on the 95°W longitude.

Satellite description

The spacecraft was designed and manufactured by Hughes on the HS-393 satellite bus. It had a launch mass of 2,478 kg (5,463 lb), a mass of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) after reaching geostationary orbit and an 8-year design life. When stowed for launch, its dimensions were 3.4 m (11 ft) long and 3.7 m (12 ft) in diameter.

With its solar panels fully extended it spanned 10 m (33 ft). Its power system generated approximately 2,350 Watts of power thanks to two cylindrical solar panels. It also had a two 38Ah NiH₂ batteries. These panels used K7 and K4-3/4 solar cells and were more than twice the number than on the HS-376.

Its propulsion system was composed of two R-4D LAE with a thrust of 490 N (110 lb_f). It also used two axial and four radial 22 N (4.9 lb_f) bipropellant thrusters for station keeping and attitude control. It included enough propellant for orbit circularization and 8 years of operation.

Its payload was composed of a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) multi horn antenna by thirty 45 MHz K_u band transponders, of which 19 were active and 11 spares. It had a total active bandwidth of 855 MHz. The K_u band transponders had a TWTA output power of 41 Watts. It also had an omnidirectional command and telemetry antenna.

History

In 1985 Satellite Business Systems decided to order a more powerful satellite than the HS-376 based previous satellites. Thus, it ordered the HS-393 based SBS 6 from Hughes, becoming the first customer of the platform.

On October 12, 1990, SBS 6 was finally launched by an Ariane 44L from Kourou ELA-2 at 22:58 UTC.

In April 2009, SBS 6 finally decommissioned and put on a graveyard orbit.

References

1. "SBS 6". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
2. "SBS 6". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
3. ^ Krebs, Gunter Dirk (2016-08-17). "SBS 6". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
4. "SBS 6". n2yo.com. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
5. "SBS 6". PanAmSat. Archived from the original on 2006-03-12. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
6. ^ "SBS 6". Boeing Satellite Development Center. Archived from the original on 2010-02-07. Retrieved 2016-08-17.

• Communications satellites
• Communications satellites in geostationary orbit
• Spacecraft launched in 1990
• Satellites using the HS-393 bus