AMC-21, or Americom-21, is a communications satellite

Communications satellite

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

 operated by SES World Skies, formerly SES Americom

SES Americom

SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator based in the United States. Formerly RCA Americom and GE Americom, the company became one of the principal parts of SES S.A.....

. It was launched in August 2008 and is expected to remain in service for approximately 15 years. It is currently located at 125° West longitude.

Spacecraft and mission design

AMC-21 is based on a STAR-2 platform that provides 4.4 kilowatts of power for the communications payload. The platform will support a 15-year on-orbit mission life. It carries 24 J band

J band

J band can refer to two different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, in the radio and near-infrared.-Radio:The J band is the range of radio frequencies from 10 GHz to 20 GHz in the electromagnetic spectrum. This is equal to wave lengths between...

 (IEEE Ku band

Ku band

The Kμ band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies. This symbol refers to —in other words, the band directly below the K-band...

) transponder

Transponder

In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...

s, which will be used to broadcast television signals to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Manufacture and launch

Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space is an aerospace company born after the Thales Group bought the participation of Alcatel in the two joint-ventures between Alcatel and Finmeccanica, Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio.-History:...

 was the prime contractor for AMC-21, and provided the satellite's communications payload. The STAR-2 bus was subcontracted to Orbital Sciences Corporation

Orbital Sciences Corporation

Orbital Sciences Corporation is an American company which specializes in the manufacturing and launch of satellites. Its Launch Systems Group is heavily involved with missile defense launch systems...

, as were integration and testing of the satellite. As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space delivered the completed satellite to SES Americom.

AMC-21 was launched, along with the Superbird 7

Superbird 7

According to its operator, Space Communications Corporation, the deployment of Superbird 7 marks the first time a satellite operator in Japan has used a commercial satellite that was made in Japan...

 satellite, by an Ariane 5ECA

Ariane 5

Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...

 rocket on 14 August 2008. The satellite separated from the carrier rocket in a geosynchronous transfer orbit. An onboard IHI-500N engine

Apogee kick motor

An apogee kick motor refers to a rocket motor that is regularly employed on artificial satellites destined for a geostationary orbit. As the vast majority of geostationary satellite launches are carried out from spaceports at a significant distance away from Earth's equator, the carrier rocket...

 then raised it to an operational geosynchronous orbit

Geosynchronous orbit

A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period that matches the Earth's sidereal rotation period...

 and placed it at a longitude of 125° West of the Greenwich Meridian.
After successful completion of in-orbit testing, SES Americom took operational control of AMC-21 in September 2008. In September 2009, SES Americom merged with SES New Skies

SES NEW SKIES

SES World Skies—formerly SES New Skies, New Skies Satellites , and SES Americom—is a Dutch operator of communications spacecraft, owned by SES.On 30 November 1998, several former Intelsat satellites were transferred to New Skies’ control...

to form SES World Skies, to which all of its operational satellites, including AMC-21, were transferred.