Mary-Louise Hoffman
A satellite Orbital Sciences built for telecommunication services provider Thaicom PLC launched into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Monday.
The THAICOM 6 satellite contains Ku- and C-band transponders and is designed to provide communications network coverage across Southeast Asia and Africa, Orbital said.
Orbital will conduct geostationary orbit and operational tests of the SATCOM system before handing over control to Thaicom.
The spacecraft is derived from Orbital’s GEOStar technology, which is built to integrate with differnet commercial payloads and launch platforms and support up to 7.5 kilowatts of payload power.
