At 1657 GMT on 15 January 2016, a Long March 3B-G2 launch vehicle successfully flew the Belintersat-1 satellite into a super-synchronous transfer orbit from the Xichang launch site in China, on its way to a final operational position over 51.5E in the geostationary orbital arc. Designed to last for 15 years, the spacecraft carries a payload of 22 Ku-band and 20 C-band transponders. The satellite was built using a “turnkey” construction and delivery to orbit contract part financed by the Export-Import Bank of China signed with CGWIC – China Great Wall Industry Corp. Belintersat-1 was actually constructed by CAST (Chinese Academy of Space Technology) and uses its DFH-4 bus/platform.
Some of the transponders from the communcations payload have reportedly been sold to China Satcom and will be marketed under the designation ZX 15/CHINASAT 15.
