Sri Lanka’s maiden satellite launched

Sri Lanka’s first Communications Satellite SupremeSAT – 1 was launched today (November 27) on board China’s Long March 3B/E Launch Vehicle from the Xi-chang Satellite Launch Centre.

SupremeSAT – 1 was launched successfully at 15:43hrs (Sri Lankan time) from the Space Center in China, Vijith Peiris Group CEO of SupremeSAT said. “This is a proud moment for us as citizens of Sri Lanka,” he told Ada Derana.

Sri Lanka becomes the 45th country to own a Communication Satellite and becomes the third South Asian country to have launched a satellite after India and Pakistan.

The Satellite will be positioned above Sri Lanka in the Geo-Stationary orbit at 87.5 degree east approximately 36000 km above the surface of the earth.

Built by Thales Alenia Space of France, SupremeSAT – I will operational for commercial purposes and has a design life of 15 years.

Its design is based on SB 4000 series satellite bus which comes under the medium class telecommunications satellite category with its launch mass of 5100kg. SB 4000 series has a successful flight heritage, hence it’s a very stable and reliable space platform, the company said.

Having a payload of 56 transponders on board SupremeSAT will be capable of providing communications services, including broadband Internet, telecom and broadcasting and will cover parts of the Middle East, South & Central Asia and also Australia.

The country’s maiden satellite launch was done by SupremeSAT, a private company with collaboration from China’s state owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation.

The launch was initially expected to take place on 22 November but was postponed due to bad weather, Space Systems Engineer Rohitha Rajapaksa had told media.

The Board of Investment (BOI) enter an agreement in early this year into partnership with Supreme SAT (Pvt) Ltd to Launched its communication satellite for Sri Lanka.

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