At 1855 GMT on 10 July 2014, four O3b satellites were successfully launched by a Soyuz ST-B/Fregat MT launch vehicle from the Sinnamary launch site near Kourou in French Guiana. The flight was the second launch for the O3b Networks satellite constellation which aims to provide Ka-band broadband communications from its medium Earth orbit location some 8,000 km above the Earth.
While the first flight of four O3B spacecraft (O3B PFM, FM 2, FM 4, FM5) in June 2013 went well, the four Thales Alenia Space-built spacecraft were subsequently found to have a digital timing unit fault which had to be repaired on later spacecraft before they could be launched. An insurance claim has been made for this fault for “constructive total loss” of the four original spacecraft over a Frequency Generation Unit fault.
The four satellites were insured in under a main and total loss policy for a total of US$321 million, Seradata understands that the negotiation over the loss is coming to a conclusion and that a total loss is likely to be declared.
