Baikonur. March 19. Kazakhstan Today - Preparation for launch of Israeli satellite Amos-3 began at Baikonur, the agency reports referring to the source at the cosmodrome.
In the assembly-test case of the platform 31 the experts of the cosmodrome and foreign manufacturers of the satellite Amos-3 started operations on installation in the test bench of the space vehicle to carry its pre-launch preparation.
The space vehicle Amos-3 with the auxiliary equipment was delivered on March 18 to the air station Yubileyny.
The satellite Amos-3 should replace device Amos-1 launched in 1996. Amos-3 will expand coverage zone of re-transmitters of Q-range, will provide high-quality communication and broadband data transmission on the territory of the Near East, Europe, Africa, as well as in some areas of the Northern and South America.
The satellite Amos-3 will be launched by the booster rocket Zenith-3SL. The forthcoming launch of the carrier rocket Zenith-3SLB - the first from Baikonur - will be carried out within the limits of the new international program Land-based launch. The assembly-test body on the platform 42 has been reconstructed and the starting complex of the platform 45 has been modernized at the cosmodrome for carrying out of the launch of the booster rocket Zenith-3SL used for launches from the marine platform Odyssey under the program Sea Launch.
Satellite Data
Manufacturer : Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI)
Orbital Location : 4 West
Launch Date : December 2007 (scheduled)
Mission period : 12 years
# of transponders: 15
Transponder BW : 72 MHZ
Beams : ME, EU, US, Steerable
Polarizations :
* Ku - Linear (V & H)
* Ka - Circular (RHCP & LHCP)
Frequency Bands :
* Ku band uplink : 14.00 to 14.50 GHZ
* Ku band downlink : 10.95 to 11.45 GHZ
* Ka band uplink : 29.40 to 30.60 GHZ
* Ka band downlink : 19.60 to 20.80 GHZ
EIRP at beam center :
* Ku band : 56 dBW
* Ka band : 56 dBW
G/T at beam center :
* ME - 15 dB/k
* EU - 14.5 dB/k
* US - 9 dB/k
