Skynet 5D

3 x 22 MHz 4 x 40 MHz

Skynet 5D is a military communications satellite from the UK Ministry of Defence Skynet 5 series. He is the last of the four belonging to this series satellites.

He was placed in a geostationary orbit on December 19, 2012 at 21:49 UTC by an Ariane 5 ECA from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, together with Mexsat Bicentenario.

The three -axis stabilized satellite is equipped with X- band transponders and UHF communications technology and will allow the position of 53 degrees East, an encrypted and secure against interference military voice and data communication. By increasing the fuel capacity of Skynet 5D can perform more frequent position change maneuver. It was built on the basis of the satellite bus Euro E3000 by Astrium and has a design life of 15 years.