YAHSAT 1A

Yahsat 1A — now officially designated Al Yah 1 — is a geostationary communications satellite operated by Al Yah Satellite Communications Company, commonly known as Yahsat, a satellite operator headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. Launched in April 2011, the spacecraft was among the first major communications satellites to be owned and operated by a UAE entity, reflecting the country's ambitions to build an independent space-based infrastructure for commercial and government communications. It carries the NORAD catalog identifier 37393 and the international designator 2011-016B, placing it as the second payload registered from its launch event. The satellite remains in orbit today, stationed in the geostationary arc where it serves a broad swath of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Mission and Purpose

Al Yah 1 was conceived as a multi-band communications platform intended to deliver broadband, broadcast, and data services across a wide geographic footprint. The spacecraft transmits in Ku-band, Ka-band, and C-band frequencies, allowing it to serve a diverse range of user segments — from consumer broadband subscribers and enterprise data networks to government and military communications users. These three frequency bands each carry distinct advantages: C-band is known for its resilience to rain fade and its suitability for wide-area coverage, Ku-band supports high-throughput broadcasting and VSAT terminals, while Ka-band enables very high data-rate applications including broadband internet services.

The satellite's service region is correspondingly expansive, spanning the Middle East, the African continent, Europe, and Southwest Asia. This coverage profile reflects Yahsat's strategy of targeting markets with significant unmet demand for reliable satellite-delivered connectivity — including regions where terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure is sparse or underdeveloped. Governments and defense entities in the UAE and allied nations have also used Yahsat capacity for secure communications, adding a strategic dimension to what is nominally a commercial communications asset.

The precise breakdown of transponder capacity, the number of transponder units aboard, or the licensed frequency assignments are not recorded in the public satellite catalog entry for this object, so those figures are not stated here. What is well-established is that the satellite was designed as a dual-purpose commercial and governmental platform — an unusual and ambitious configuration for a relatively new national operator to undertake with its inaugural satellite.

Orbit and Tracking

Yahsat 1A occupies a position in the geostationary belt at 52.5 degrees East longitude, a slot that places it in an ideal position to serve its intended coverage regions across the Middle East and the wider arc from East Africa through to Central Asia. Its orbital parameters confirm its geostationary nature: the catalog records an apogee of 35,809 km, a perigee of 35,781 km, and an inclination of 0.0°, meaning the spacecraft's orbital plane is almost perfectly aligned with Earth's equatorial plane. The near-circular shape of the orbit — with a difference of only 28 km between apogee and perigee — is characteristic of a well-maintained geostationary spacecraft that has completed its transfer orbit insertion and station-keeping adjustments.

The orbital period of 1,436.2 minutes is the key figure that defines geostationary operation. This period is closely matched to Earth's sidereal rotation rate, meaning that from the perspective of a ground-based observer or antenna, the satellite appears essentially stationary against the background sky. This is the fundamental advantage of the geostationary orbit for communications applications: fixed ground antennas can point at the satellite without requiring tracking mechanisms, dramatically lowering the cost and complexity of user terminals.

With a NORAD ID of 37393, the object is routinely tracked by the United States Space Surveillance Network and its data is regularly updated in public two-line element sets. Because geostationary satellites maintain such stable, predictable orbits, their positional predictions are highly accurate over extended periods compared to objects in lower or more eccentric orbits. As of the time of writing, Yahsat 1A remains in orbit with no decay or reentry date recorded.

Design and Operator

The spacecraft was constructed through a collaboration involving EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, two of Europe's most prominent satellite manufacturers. The platform itself is based on the Eurostar E3000 satellite bus, a well-proven design that has served as the foundation for numerous large geostationary communications satellites. The E3000 platform is known for its high power output, large payload capacity, and long design life, making it a popular choice for operators seeking to maximize the commercial return on a single satellite investment. The launch mass of the satellite was approximately 6,000 kg, though this figure — drawn from general knowledge about the program — reflects a value publicly associated with the spacecraft rather than a figure present in the verified catalog record for this object.

Yahsat, the operating company, is a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment fund. The UAE government's backing gives Yahsat access to significant financial resources and positions it as an instrument of national technology policy as much as a purely commercial enterprise. The company was founded in 2007 and Yahsat 1A represented its first satellite, making the spacecraft's successful deployment a milestone event in the organization's development.

The satellite was lofted into orbit on April 21, 2011, from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, operated by Arianespace. It shared its ride to orbit with Intelsat New Dawn, a satellite bound for African communications markets, aboard an Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle. This dual-manifest configuration is standard practice for Arianespace's heavy-lift launches, allowing two large geostationary satellites to share the cost and opportunity of a single launch. The Ariane 5 ECA is one of the most reliable commercial launch vehicles in the world, having established a long record of successful geostationary delivery missions during this era.

Significance and Current Status

Yahsat 1A holds a notable place in the development of the UAE's space sector. When the satellite launched in 2011, the country was still in a relatively early stage of building national capabilities in space technology and infrastructure. While the UAE had previously owned capacity on leased transponders or held stakes in international satellite ventures, Yahsat 1A — as a fully owned, independently operated national communications satellite — represented a qualitative step forward. It demonstrated that a Gulf state could procure, commission, and operate a sophisticated telecommunications asset capable of serving a multinational customer base.

The satellite's geographic positioning and multi-band configuration also ensured its commercial relevance in competitive markets. Serving the intersection of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia from a single platform placed Yahsat in a position to compete with established operators in markets where demand for bandwidth was growing rapidly through the 2010s. Subsequent satellites in the Yahsat fleet, including Al Yah 2 and later high-throughput Ka-band spacecraft, built on the foundation established by this first satellite.

The designation change from Yahsat 1A to Al Yah 1 reflects a broader rebranding of the operator's satellite fleet, aligning the spacecraft's name with the company's evolving identity. In the satellite tracking community, however, the original designation Yahsat 1A and the NORAD catalog identifier 37393 continue to be the primary references used to locate and identify the object.

No reentry or decay date has been recorded for the spacecraft, which is consistent with its geostationary orbit. Objects at geostationary altitude are not subject to atmospheric drag in the way that low Earth orbit satellites are, and without active deorbit maneuvers, they remain in their orbital slots effectively indefinitely on human timescales. Upon retirement, geostationary satellites are typically moved to a slightly higher "graveyard orbit" to free up their slot for successor spacecraft — a standard end-of-life procedure governed by international guidelines — though no public information about the current operational status or remaining fuel reserves of this particular satellite is confirmed in the catalog record reviewed here.

How to Spot It

Yahsat 1A is a geostationary satellite, meaning it occupies a fixed point in the sky as seen from the ground. For observers in the Middle East, East Africa, or South Asia, the satellite sits above the southern horizon at a bearing corresponding to 52.5 degrees East longitude. Like all geostationary satellites, it does not move noticeably against the background stars, which distinguishes it from lower-orbiting objects that arc visibly across the sky in minutes.

Observing a geostationary satellite with the naked eye is generally not possible under most conditions, as objects at roughly 35,800 km altitude appear very faint. However, with binoculars or a small telescope, and precise knowledge of its fixed sky position, dedicated observers in suitable locations can sometimes pick out geostationary satellites during twilight, when the satellite is illuminated by sunlight while the observer is already in shadow. Satellite-tracking software and the two-line element data associated with NORAD ID 37393 can be used to confirm the precise elevation and azimuth for any given observer location.