Nilesat 102

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Nilesat 102 is an Egyptian owned geosynchronous communications satellite that was launched by an Ariane 44LP rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on August 17, 2000 at 23:16 UTC by the European Space Agency. It was manufactured by the European company Matra Marconi Space (Astrium), and started official broadcasting in 12 September 2000 with an Expected Life Time of 15 years. At launch the spacecraft weighed 1,827 kg (fully fuelled).

Nilesat 102 is operated by The Egyptian satellite Co. Nilesat that was established in 1996 with the purpose of operating Egyptian satellites and their associated ground control station and uplinking facilities.

It is parked at the geostationary orbital position of 7 degrees West together with its sister Satellite Nilesat 101 and carries 12 Ku-band 100 W high power wide beam transponders of 33 MHz bandwidth to provide digital communications and terrestrial Direct to Home ((DTH)) TV, Radio Broadcasting, Multimedia and Data services for countries in North Africa, South Europe and Middle East. The two satellites carry approximately 280 TV channels covering all the Middle East countries; from Iran in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and from south Europe in the north to the centre of Africa in the south.

Nilesat and Eutelsat has agreed in September 2005 to lease capacity on Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD 4 satellite after relocating it to 7 degrees West and renaming it to Nilesat 103, the satellite is scheduled to be repositioned to this location in second quarter 2006 after the launch and entry into service of Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD 7A and HOT BIRD 8 satellites.