Agila 2

Country of Origin:	Philippines Philippines The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
Major contractors:	Space Systems/Loral Space Systems/Loral Space Systems/Loral , of Palo Alto, California, is the wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications. It was acquired in 1990 for $715 million by Loral Corp. from Ford Motor Company as the Space Systems Division of Ford Aerospace...
Application:	Communication Communication Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
Satellite of:	Earth Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
Launch:	August 19, 1997
Launch vehicle:	Long March 3B Long March 3B The Long March 3B , also known as the Chang Zheng 3B, CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre...
Mass Mass Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:... :	2820 kg (6,217 lb)
NSSDC ID:	1997-042A
Webpage:	Agila 2 webpage
Orbit Orbit In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System... :	Geostationary orbit Geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...  146°E 146th meridian east The meridian 146° east of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....

Agila 2 (also known as Mabuhay 1 and ABS-5 after being acquired by Asia Broadcast Satellite), named after the critically endangered Philippine eagle

Philippine Eagle

The Philippine Eagle , also known as the Monkey-eating Eagle, is an eagle of the family Accipitridae that is endemic to forests in the Philippines. It has brown and white-coloured plumage, and a shaggy crest, and generally measures in length and weighs...

, is a communications satellite

Communications satellite

A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...

 launched in 1997. It provides telecommunications services for the Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation. It is the first Filipino space satellite. Built by Space Systems/Loral

Space Systems/Loral

Space Systems/Loral , of Palo Alto, California, is the wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications. It was acquired in 1990 for $715 million by Loral Corp. from Ford Motor Company as the Space Systems Division of Ford Aerospace...

, the satellite provides the most powerful coverage in the Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...

 region. Its control station is located at the Subic Space Center in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone

Subic Bay Freeport Zone

Subic Bay Freeport Zone , which is known simply as Subic Bay, is the Philippines' first success case of a into a tax- and duty-free zone similar to Hong Kong and Singapore, operated and managed by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority or SBMA. It covers the fenced area of the former U.S...

. The spacecraft was launched by the Long March 3B

Long March 3B

The Long March 3B , also known as the Chang Zheng 3B, CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre...

 in its first successful flight and currently orbits at 146°E

146th meridian east

The meridian 146° east of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....

 longitude.

ABS Satellite is currently drifting Agila 2 (ABS-5) to the 3°W orbital slot and renaming it ABS-3. It's expected to enter service in December of 2011.

Capacity

It contains 30 C-band transponders at 27 watts and 24 Ku-band transponders at 110 watts, combinable to 12 high-power 220-watt transponders. Total dc power at End of Life (EOL) will be more than 8200 watts. The combination provides a power-to-mass ratio of 5-to-1, making Mabuhay one of the most efficient satellites in the industry. A single Agila 2 satellite transmits more than 190 channels of high-fidelity digital programming to cable companies and home satellite dishes, along with the capability to handle more than 50,000 simultaneous two-way telephone conversations.

Design

Agila 2 is a joint venture of Mabuhay Satellite Corporation and various companies from the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, namely, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company commonly known as PLDT, is the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines. PLDT is also the largest company in the Philippines, ranked 1138th in the April 2009 update, and 1080th in the April 2010 update, of Forbes' Global 2000 list...

 (PLDT), High Rise Realty Development Corporation, Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel), Beijing High Den Enterprises Limited, Walden Group of Companies, GMA Network, Inc.

GMA Network, Inc.

Global Media Arts Network Inc. is a multimedia entertainment conglomerate, incorporated on March 1, 1950 in the Philippines. Its main businesses are into television and radio distribution, program production, and other media related industry...

, Philippine Satellite Corporation, Cable Entertainment Corporation, Siy Yap Group, and Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation. Its cost was estimated at US$ 243 million and has a design based on the Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 satellite bus. The satellite was deployed to orbit by a Chinese Long March 3B rocket in Sichuan province, on 20 August 1997. It is expected to achieve a mission lifetime of more than 15 years.

Reach

The satellite's C-band coverage beam illuminates an area covering East

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

, South

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

, and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

, and the Western Pacific up to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. Meanwhile, the Ku-band coverage zone encompasses Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, portions of mainland China

Mainland China

Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...

 and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, as well as the entire Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. The 24 Ku-band transponders of the satellite may also be commanded by ground control to combine into 12 high-powered transponders with 220-watt amplifiers for the purpose of broadcasting direct-to-home digital TV services.

The C-band capacity permit Internet access with downlink capabilities of up to 15 Mbit/s. Moreover, Filipino broadcasters, such as ABS-CBN Corporation, use the satellite's C-band capacity for signal distribution and satellite news gathering activities. The Ku-band capacity delivers direct-to-home broadcast services to Filipinos in remote areas which allows rural dish owners to receive high-quality programming previously available only to certain parts of the country via wire and cable facilities.