HGS-1 (AsiaSat 3)
HGS-1 — a communications satellite launched as AsiaSat 3 on 24 December 1997 and stranded in a useless orbit when its rocket's upper stage failed. Its builder, Hughes, bought it back from the insurers and sent it around the Moon twice, on 13 May and 6 June 1998, to reach a working orbit — the first commercial spacecraft to fly by the Moon. It later served as PAS-22.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- Hughes Global Services
- Launched
- December 24, 1997
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Speed rel. Earth
- 3.06 km/s
- Computed from the cached state vector, relative to Earth
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.996 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 1,565,567 km
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.276 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
HGS-1 was launched as AsiaSat 3, a communications satellite for Asia, on a Proton rocket from Baikonur on 24 December 1997. The rocket's upper stage malfunctioned and left it in a steep, elongated orbit it could not use, without enough fuel to reach its intended geostationary orbit the usual way. Its builder, Hughes, bought it back from the insurers, renamed it HGS-1 and tried something no commercial satellite had done: using the Moon's gravity to change its orbit. On 13 May 1998 it passed about 6,200 km from the lunar surface, and after a second circuit it flew by again on 6 June at about 34,300 km. The two flybys tilted its orbit enough for it to reach a usable geosynchronous orbit. It was the first commercial spacecraft to fly by the Moon. In 1999 PanAmSat bought it and renamed it PAS-22. It was switched off in July 2002.
- 1997AsiaSat 3 launches on a Proton rocketLaunch
Its upper stage malfunctions, stranding it in an orbit it cannot use.
The first commercial spacecraft to fly by the Moon.
Its orbit now tilted enough to reach a usable geosynchronous one.
Images
No openly licensed image of HGS-1 (AsiaSat 3) large enough to show has been found.