spacetoday.net: Shin reorders satellite

Posted: Fri, Jul 1, 2005, 8:27 PM ET (0027 GMT)
Alcatel Space announced Friday that Shin Satellite has ordered a new communications satellite, a spacecraft that the Thai company is actually reordering from the French manufacturer. The satellite, named Thaicom 5, is a Spacebus-family spacecraft weighing about 2,800 kilograms; it will carry 14 Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders. While Alcatel announced this as a new spacecraft order, Space News reported that the spacecraft is actually the same as Thaicom 4, which Shin ordered in the mid-1990s, only to cancel the order in 1997 because of a financial crisis. Alcatel later tried to sell the spacecraft to an Indian company, Agrani Satellite, only to have Agrani cancel the order in 2004. Thaicom 5 is scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2006, although no launch arrangements have been announced.