AMSC-1

 1995-019A

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American Mobile Satellite Corp. launched the AMSC-1 satellite to provide domestic mobile telephone communications to the United States. The satellite, also known as M-SAT 2, was one of a pair; the second was built for Canada's Telesat Mobile Inc. The M-SAT type satellites used a new type of graphite antenna, 20 kg in mass and 6.7 x 4.9 m in size. The two L-band reflector antennas span 19m when deployed, while the solar arrays have a 21 m span. The communications payload was built by Spar Aerospace.

In late 1997 AMSC leased the satellite to Actel (African Continental Telecoms Ltd, Gibraltar) to provide telephone service in Africa. Actel is a merger of African Telecom Ltd and Elcor Holdings Ltd; the satellite was renamed Actel 1 (although Elcor is another possible name). AMSC was be moved to 11.5E. The deal fell through in 1999 and AMSC was renamed Motient Corp. in Apr 2000. In 2001, AMSC 1 was owned by Motient Corp. of Reston, Virginia and was operated by Motient Satellite Ventures LLC, a joint venture of Motient and TMI.

AMSC 1
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1995 Apr 7	2347	Launch by Atlas IIA
	2349	Booster BECO
	2349	Booster sep
	2350	Fairing sep
	2351	Sustainer SECO
	2351	Atlas sep
	2351	Centaur MES1
	2357	Centaur MECO1
1995 Apr 8	0012?	Centaur MES2
	0014?	Centaur MECO2
1995 Apr 8	0017	Separation (1799s)	186 x 40427 x 26.5
1995 Apr 8			718.25 212 x 40164 x 26.5
1995 Apr 8	1840?	LAM-1
1995 Apr 9			720.89 365 x 40142 x 25.7
1995 Apr 10	1800?	LAM-2
1995 Apr 11			927.00 10064 x 40165 x 9.0
1995 Apr 13?		LAM-3
1995 Apr 13			1337.01 27483 x 40164 x 2.9
1995 Apr 15	1340?	LAM-4
1995 Apr 16			1544.81 35666 x 40110 x 0.9
1995 Apr 17	0400?	LAM-5
1995 Apr 19			1435.68 35759 x 35797 x 0.1 GEO 102.4W+0.1E
1995 May 21			1436.05 35777 x 35794 x 0.1 GEO 101.0W
1995 May		Spot beam issues
1995 Aug 26			1436.10 35776 x 35796 x 0.0 GEO 101.0W
1997 Jan 9			1436.11 35779 x 35793 x 0.1 GEO 101.1W