Morelos Satellite System

Series of Mexican communications satellites

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Morelos I

Spacecraft properties
Bus| HS-376
Manufacturer| Hughes Aircraft Corporation
BOL mass| 646.5 kilograms (1,425 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date| 17 June 1985
Rocket| Space Shuttle Discovery/STS-51-G
Transponders
Band| C band: 18 (+2 spares)
Ku band: 4 (+2 spares)
EIRP| C band: 36 dBW
Ku band: 44 dBW

Morelos II

Spacecraft properties
Bus| HS-376
Manufacturer| Hughes Aircraft Corporation
BOL mass| 646.5 kilograms (1,425 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date| 27 November 1985
Rocket| Space Shuttle Atlantis/STS-61-B
Transponders
Band| C band: 18 (+2 spares)
Ku band: 4 (+2 spares)
EIRP| C band: 36 dBW
Ku band: 44 dBW

Morelos III

Operator| MEXSAT
COSPAR ID| 2015-056A
Mission duration| 15 years
Spacecraft properties
Bus| 702HP GeoMobile
Manufacturer| Boeing
Launch mass| 5,325 kilograms (11,740 lb)
BOL mass| 3,200 kilograms (7,100 lb)
Power| 14kW
Start of mission
Launch date| 2 October 2015
Rocket| Atlas V 421 (AV-059)
Orbital parameters
Longitude| 113° W
Transponders
Band| L band and Ku band

The Morelos satellites are a series of Mexican communications satellites. The first two operated between 1985 and 1998 and provided telephony, data, and television services over the territory of the Mexican Republic and adjacent areas. The third is now part of the MEXSAT constellation (sister ship of the MEXSAT-1 lost during launch) but carries the Morelos name.

The original Morelos satellites were replaced by the Solidaridad Satellite System (Solidaridad I, launched 17 November 1993, and Solidaridad 2, launched 17 October 1994) and, following privatisation, by the Satmex Satellite System.

## Satellites

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### Morelos I

[edit]

Morelos I was Mexico's first communications satellite. It was built and put into orbit under a contract from the Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT), the federal ministry responsible for the nation's communications systems. Morelos I, a Hughes Aircraft Corporation HS-376, was launched by the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery (mission STS-51-G) on 17 June 1985 and entered geostationary orbit at 113° W on 17 December 1985.

### Morelos II

[edit]

Morelos II was launched in November 1985 and remained in service until July 1998. Built by the Hughes Aircraft Corporation for the SCT, it was launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis on 27 November 1985; the mission, STS-61-B, included Mexican-born astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela as a payload specialist in its crew. Morelos II held a geostationary orbit at 116.8° W.

### Morelos III

[edit]

Morelos III (originally MEXSAT 2) was launched on 2 October 2015 at 10:28 UTC on Atlas V 421 AV-059 and the 100th launch by the United Launch Alliance. The spacecraft is designed to provide L-band services to mobile 3G+ users and armed forces via a deployable 22m Herschelian antenna dish with RF transceivers. It also has a 2m Ku-band dish of fixed geometry with a much simpler deployment sequence. The spacecraft is a Boeing 702HP GeoMobile spacecraft bus equipped with an RD-4 main engine for completing its ascent to geostationary orbit at 113° W from an ascent orbit of 4750 by 35800km inclined at 27° following the now-typical long duration two-burn profile of the Atlas V.[1][2][3] It was originally intended to serve with the similar MEXSAT-1 Centenario spacecraft (which would have been at 116° W) lost during the 3rd stage failure of the 406th Proton, a launch vehicle of Proton-M/Briz-M configuration.[4]

## Gallery

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Morelos Satellite System
(Photo credit: NASA)

* Deployment of Morelos I

* Deployment of Morelos II

## See also

[edit]

* Spaceflight portal

* 1985 in spaceflight
* Satmex
* Telecommunications in Mexico
* Mexsat

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Graham, William (October 2, 2015). "ULA marks 100th mission – Atlas V launches with Morelos-3". www.nasaspaceflight.com. NASA Spaceflight Forums. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
2. ^ de Selding, Peter B. (October 2, 2015). "Atlas 5 Launches Mexicos Morelos-3 L-band Satellite". www.spacenews.com. Space News. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
3. ^ Rhian, Jason (October 2, 2015). "Strong at 100 – ULA launches Morelos-3 on firm's 100th mission". www.spaceflightinsider.com. Spaceflight Insider. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
4. ^ Bergin, Chris (May 16, 2015). "ILS Proton-M suffers third stage failure during MexSat-1 launch". www.nasaspaceflight.com. NASA Spaceflight Forums. Retrieved October 2, 2015.

## External links

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* Morelos (Boeing)
* Morelos II (Satmex)
* Morelos-3 Launch images, Oct 2, 2015 @ 6:28 am EDT

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Orbital launches in 2015

2016 →

January|

* SpaceX CRS-5 (Flock-1d' × 2, AESP-14)
* MUOS-3
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February|

* IGS-Radar Spare
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* Kosmos 2503 / Bars-M No. 1

March|

* ABS-3A, Eutelsat 115 West B
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April|

* SpaceX CRS-6 (Arkyd-3R, Flock-1e × 14)
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May|

* Mexsat-1
* USA-261 / X-37 OTV-4, LightSail-1, USS Langley, BRICSat-P, ParkinsonSat, GEARRS-2, AeroCube 8A, 8B, OptiCube 1, 2, 3
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June|

* Kosmos 2505 / Kobalt-M №10
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* SpaceX CRS-7† (Flock-1f × 8†)

July|

* Progress M-28M
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August|

* HTV-5 / Kounotori 5 (Flock-2b × 14)
* Eutelsat 8 West B, Intelsat 34
* Yaogan 27
* GSAT-6 / INSAT-4E
* Inmarsat 5-F3

September|

* Soyuz TMA-18M
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* Ekspress AM8
* Kosmos 2507 / Strela-3M 13, Kosmos 2508 / Strela-3M 14, Kosmos 2509 / Strela-3M 15
* Pujiang-1
* Astrosat, LAPAN-A2, Lemur-2 × 4
* BeiDou I2-S
* NBN-Co 1A, ARSAT-2

October|

* Progress M-29M
* Mexsat-2
* Jilin-1 Smart Verification Satellite, Jilin-1 Optical-A, Jilin-1 Video-01, Jilin-1 Video-02
* USA-264 / NOSS Intruder × 2, AMSAT Fox-1
* APStar-9
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November|

* Chinasat 2C
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* Yaogan 28
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* Kosmos 2510 / EKS-1 / Tundra-11L
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* Yaogan 29

December|

* LISA Pathfinder
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* Cygnus CRS OA-4 (Flock-2e × 12, MinXSS 1, Nodes × 2)
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* Gaofen 4

Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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