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Swedish Space Corporation ready to control Sirius 4

This news was published on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 and is archived under Aerospace.

Sweden’s next communications satellite, Sirius 4, is planned to be launched with a Proton Breeze M launch vehicle at 22.39 (UTC) on November 17 or 18 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) is ready to take over the control of the satellite as soon as the LEOP (Launch and Early Operation Phase) and the initial IOT (In-Orbit Test) period are over. Around 1,5 months after launch SSC will take over the control of the satellite and run it through the entire lifetime, which is estimated to 20 years. The Mission Control Center for Sirius 4 is located at Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden, where SSC has its operational base for a range of space missions.


SES Sirius, the owner of Sirius 4, has contracted Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of Sirius 4, to control the satellite during the LEOP and IOT period. During this period, the Mission Control Center will be placed in Newtown, USA, where Lockheed Martin has its operations center. Engineers from SSC will be involved in the operations at Newtown from dress rehearsal and onwards through the LEOP, the continuing test phases as well as the hand over of the control of Sirius 4 to SSC.

SSC controls satellites since 1986 when the first Swedish scientific satellite, VIKING, was launched into orbit. Since then, SSC has controlled additionally four scientific and three telecommunications satellites, making SSC an experienced and dependable partner for satellite control.

- We are working hard to establish SSC as a first choice partner for outsourced satellite control, says Mr Raimo Pesämaa, head of satellite control services at SSC. We believe that we have developed into a first-class partner for satellite owners who do not wish to build up their own satellite operation team or own technical facilities, Mr Pesämaa concludes.

- We know SSC as a reliable operational partner with a very competent satellite engineering team, says Mr Håkan Sjödin, Managing Director of SES Sirius. SSC has controlled all our four previous satellites very successfully and we are looking forward to working together with SSC at least 15 more years from now, Mr Sjödin adds.

Follow the launch from Esrange Space Center
Media is invited to follow the launch from Esrange Space Center, right in the heart of the future Mission Control Center for Sirius 4. You will follow the launch via a satellite communication link, side by side with the satellite engineers of the future Sirius 4 team. Please contact [email protected] to attend this event.

You can also follow the launch on ILS Sirius 4, 20 minutes before and 20 minutes after take off.

Read more about Sirius 4 at the SES Sirius site.http://www.ses-sirius.com/satellites/sirius-4/

 

Source: Swedish Space Corporation (SSC)
Picture provided and copyrighted by Lockheed Martin
For further information about Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), click here

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