Satellite Thuraya

Thuraya, from the Arabic name for the constellation of the Pleiades, "Thurayya", is an international mobile satellite services provider based in the United Arab Emirates. The company claims to operate in more than 160 countries across Europe, the Middle East, North, Central and East Africa, Asia and Australia. With more than 350 roaming partners worldwide, Thuraya is the only mobile satellite operator that offers GSM roaming services over mobile networks. ... Thuraya operates two communications satellites built by Boeing. ... Thuraya 2 was launched by SeaLaunch on 2003-06-10. It is located in geosynchronous orbit at 44 deg-E longitude, inclined at 6.3 degrees. The satellite can handle 13,750 simultaneous voice calls. This satellite currently serves most of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. The craft had a weight of 3200 kg and an expected life of 12 years. The two solar-panel wings, each containing 5 panels, generate 11 KW electric power (at end of life). The craft has two antenna systems: a round C-band antenna, 1,27 meter in diameter and a 12 x 16 meter AstroMesh reflector, 128 element L-band antenna, supplied by Astro Aerospace in Carpenteria, CA. These antennas support up to 351 separate spot beams, each configurable to concentrate power where usage needs it. ... The third satellite was planned for launch by SeaLaunch in Q1 2007, and the start of Far East and Australia service was planned for 2007-10-15. The failure in January 2007 of the NSS-8 rocket led to a substantial delay in the launch of Thuraya-3, which was rescheduled for 2007-11-14, but the launch was postponed several times due to sea conditions. The launch vessels set out from port again on 2008-01-02, and launch occurred successfully at 11:49 GMT on 2008-01-15. The Thuraya 3 satellite is technically the same as Thuraya 2, but located in geosynchronous orbit at 98.5 deg-E longitude, inclined at 6.2 degrees. [Thuraya. Wikipedia]