SSTL announces the successful launch of AlSat-1B

AlSat-1B is a small satellite with a mass of 100kg and was launched into a 670km sun-synchronous orbit on board the PSLV launch vehicle from the Sriharikota launch site in India on 26 September at UTC/GMT 03.44.

Following separation from the launch vehicle, SSTL and ASAL are pleased to confirm successful contact was made with AlSat-1B via SSTL’s ground station in Svalbard, and all initial system checks are nominal. A joint team of SSTL and ASAL engineers are undertaking commissioning of the spacecraft from SSTL’s Spacecraft Operations Centre in Guildford, UK. After commissioning is complete, daily satellite operations and data downloads will be undertaken from ASAL’s Satellite Design Centre at Oran in Algeria.

AlSat-1B is a collaborative mission between SSTL and ASAL and in September 2015 the spacecraft was shipped to Algeria for a six month period of assembly, systems integration and imager testing at ASAL’s facilities. Under the joint development programme, eighteen engineers from ASAL have worked alongside SSTL engineers on the mission.

AlSat-1B is based on the SSTL-100 platform, and flies a 24m multispectral imager and a 12m panchromatic imager delivering images with a swath width of 140km. The satellite carries two High Speed Data Recorders and two Flash Mass Memory Units capable of recording, managing and storing image data for high speed downlink via S-Band and X-Band transmitters.

ASAL will process the earth observation data from AlSat-1B for agricultural and resource monitoring, disaster management, land use mapping and urban planning.

AlSat-1B will join the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, a unique earth observation constellation which delivers high frequency commercial imaging of the globe, and also provides free satellite imagery for humanitarian use within the International Charter: Space & Major Disasters. AlSat-1B provides continuity from Algeria’s first satellite, AlSat-1A, a 32m multispectral Earth observation satellite which was launched in 2002 and was also designed and manufactured by SSTL.

AlSat Nano, a cubesat designed and manufactured by the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey, shared the ride to orbit. It will deliver an educational and technology demonstration joint space mission for the UK Space Agency and Algerian Space Agency (ASAL).