[Satellite TODAY 05-25-10] Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) has acquired the Koreasat-3 satellite from Korea Telecom (KT), the company announced May 24.
    The satellite aims to provide ABS with even more capacity in the Middle East market – a major target for the operator. 
    This is the second satellite ABS has acquired from KT in the last 12 months after acquiring the Koreasat-2 satellite in July. The closing of the Koreasat-3 sale is subject to regulatory approval.
    The Koreasat-3 satellite is a Lockheed Martin A2100 spacecraft launched in Sept. 1999. The satellite has a payload consisting of 24 x 36MHz FSS Ku-band (12 fixed and 12 steerable beams), 6 x 27 MHz BSS Ku-band and 3 x 200 MHz FSS Ka-band transponders. Koreasat-3 will be renamed as ABS-7 as a result of this transaction.
    With sufficient fuel for station-kept operations in Geo-stationary orbit for an estimated 6-7 years and an additional 5-6 years of inclined-orbit operations, ABS-7 (Koreasat-3) will provide significant high powered Ku-band and Ka-band capacities to meet ABS’s customer demands for cellular backhaul, VSAT services, satellite broadband and US/NATO government requirements in the Middle East region.
    “Similar to Koreasat-2, the Koreasat-3 satellite is a very well designed, powerful Ku-band satellite which will allow ABS to provide its customers additional capacity over the Middle East region and will be a valuable addition to our existing satellite fleet,” ABS CEO Tom Choi said in a statement.