MUMBAI: A new satellite is all set to be launched on 5 August that will cater to the Asia Pacific countries of India, China, Middle East and south east Asia. Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company (ASTC) will launch AsiaSat 8 from Cape Canaveral in the US.

The satellite will be propelled into the sky at Hong Kong time 1:35 pm or 1:25 am Cape Canaveral time, by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle from its station in Florida. AsiaSat 8 is a space systems/loral 1300 series satellite with a life span of 15 years.

Its 24 Ku-band transponders and a Ka-band payload will help to meet the growing market demand for quality satellite services in the APAC region. Co-located with it will be AsiaSat 7 at orbital location 105.5 degrees east. AsiaSat 7 covers the areas of Asia, Middle East, Central Asia and Australasia. The satellite’s inter-beam switching capability will provide flexibility for market requirements and for services including DTH television, private networks and broadband services.

With a payload power of about 8,500 watts, this will be the most powerful offering from ASTC with a transponder bandwidth of 54 MHz. It has four beams with each addressing the regions of India, China, Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Soon after, another satellite will be launched from the Hong Kong based provider- AsiaSat 6 that will also be launched by the Falcon.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 will launch AsiaSat 8 into a geostationary transfer orbit. According to SpaceNews, AsiaSat has paid $52.2 million each for the Falcon 9 launch of AsiaSat8 and AsiaSat 6.