China's First All-Electric Propulsion ComSat - APSTAR-6E Starts Operation

TapTechNews July 15th news, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation officially announced that on July 15th, the domestic first all-electric propulsion communication satellite - APSTAR-6E successfully passed the satellite's on-orbit technical acceptance review and the ground system's final technical acceptance review in Hong Kong, indicating that the APSTAR-6E communication satellite has completed on-orbit testing and officially commenced operations.

The APSTAR-6E communication satellite was developed by the Fifth Research Institute of the Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The project is the thirteenth in-orbit delivery project of communication satellites provided by its affiliated China Great Wall Industry Corporation to domestic and foreign users, and is operated by Hong Kong APSTAR Satellite Company Limited and entrusted to Hong Kong APSTAR Telecommunications Satellite Company Limited for measurement and control management. The APSTAR-6E communication satellite focuses on the Southeast Asian market, providing cost-effective high-throughput broadband communication services for this region.

According to TapTechNews' inquiry, the APSTAR-6E communication satellite and the independent propulsion module assembly were successfully launched into space by the Long March 2C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on January 13, 2023. After the satellite separated from the assembly on January 23 of the same year, it independently changed orbit through its own Hall/ion two sets of electric propulsion systems, and arrived at the synchronous orbit and was fixed at the test orbit position on June 10, 2024.

The APSTAR-6E communication satellite is so far the world's first communication satellite that fully realizes orbital transfer from the low Earth orbit (LEO) to the geosynchronous orbit (GEO) independently.