JCSAT-110

The spacecraft was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin on the A2100-AX satellite bus. It had a launch mass of 3,531 kg (7,785 lb) with a dry mass of 1,669 kg (3,680 lb) and a 13-year design life. As most satellites based on the A2100-AX platform, it uses a 460 N (100 lb_f) LEROS-1C liquid apogee engine (LAE) for orbit raising.

When stowed for launch, the satellite was 6 m (20 ft) high. Its dual wing solar panels gave a power generation capability of 8.3 kW at the end of its design life, with a span of 26.4 m (87 ft) when deployed.[5][6] With antennas deployed, its width was 8.3 m (27 ft).[2]

Its payload is composed of twenty-four 36 MHz Ku-band transponders with a TWTA output power of 120 watts per channel. With its total bandwidth of 864 GHz, it is used primarily for multi-channel pay per view business.[7][5][8]

In September 1997, both JCSAT and Space Communications Corporation (SCC) had requested the 110° East position.[9] The Japanese government made both companies share the 110° East position, and thus they both made a joint order on 20 November 1998 for N-SAT 110 from Lockheed Martin.[9][10] JCSAT used the JCSAT-7 designation for this satellite, while SCC used Superbird-5.[5]

On 6 October 2000 at 23:00 UTC, an Ariane-42L H10-3 successfully launched N-SAT 110 to a geostationary transfer orbit from Centre Spatial Guyanais ELA-2.[11] One hour later, at 00:04 UTC, on 7 October 2000, the first signals from the satellite were successfully received from the Australia ground station.[12] On 14 October 2000, at around 03:00 UTC, N-SAT 110 reached the geostationary orbit.[13] Once it was put into orbit, it was renamed as JCSAT-110 by JCSAT and Superbird-D by SCC.[5]

On 1 October 2008, JSAT Corporation and Space Communications Corporation merged into SKY Perfect JSAT Group, and the satellite was known simply as JCSAT-110.[7]

• 2000 in spaceflight