Thaicom-6 Communications Satellite Successfully Deployed

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On January 6, SpaceX successfully launched the Thaicom-6 satellite, which uses reflectors constructed from composite materials.

The spacecraft uses three composite reflectors which were manufactured by Vanguard Space Technologies at their San Diego, Calif. facility.

“We are very proud to be on Orbital’s team for this very important Thaicom mission,” said Frank Belknap, Vanguard’s CEO. “The composite reflectors produced by Vanguard showcase our capabilities to produce very tight tolerance, highly accurate and lightweight components in our world class composite manufacturing facility. We have a long heritage of producing high-precision reflectors for space-based missions and have been a key supplier to Orbital for many of their successful satellite missions.”

Coverage maps and additional technical information the satellite are available on the Thaicom website. Thaicom-6 was built by Orbital, which has additional information on Thaicom-6 on its website. Details on the launch are available from SpaceX.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung
Contributor

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.