The NILESAT 101 satellite, built by MATRA MARCONI SPACE for the Egyptian satellite company NILESAT, is due for launch on Ariane 4 Flight V108 from Kourou in French Guiana, on April 28th at 19h53 local time (22h53 GMT). This satellite will be predominantly used by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU).

With beam coverage over the entire area of North Africa, from Morocco to the Persian Gulf,
the satellite’s communications payload comprises 12 Ku-band repeaters for the direct broadcast of up to 100 digital television channels as well as a large number of radio channels and data transmission for multimedia services. All these new services will be able to be received on 60 cm diameter domestic antennas which makes Egypt the first country in the region to have its own direct broadcast digital TV satellite.  This illustrates the importance of Egypt’s cultural role in the area.

The lifetime of NILESAT 101, which has been designed and built in 24 months, has recently been extended to 15 years.  Its direct broadcast television payload and its telemetry tracking and control system were provided by ALCATEL and fully integrated in 17 months.

As part of its contract MATRA MARCONI SPACE supplied 2 satellite control centres, the main one located near Cairo and the second in Alexandria.  It also provided comprehensive operator training for the Egyptian engineers who will take over control of the satellite once in orbit.  The contract also includes the preparatory build of long lead items for a spare satellite. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NILESAT 101
Spacecraft Dimensions:
Height : 2.4m, Length : 1.7m, Width : 2.2m, Solar Array Span :  19m
Dry mass :  800 kg, Launch mass :  1840 kg
DC Power / End of life :  3750 W
Design lifetime :  15 years, Orbital position :   7° West
Payload: Mass : 140 kg
Payload Power :  2250 W
Frequency bands :  17.3 to 17.7 GHz
Number of channels :  12 transponders with ability to support up to 100 television  programme broadcasting.
Channel Bandwidth :  33 MHz, HPA RF Output power : 99 W ------------------------------------------------------------------------
For further information contact  :
MATRA MARCONI SPACE-F             Rémi ROLAND                 (33-1) 34 88 35 78
MATRA MARCONI SPACE-UK         Alistair SCOTT                   (44) 1438 773 698
LAGARDERE                                         Roland SANGUINETTI     (33-1) 40 69 16 74