HISPASAT 36W-1

HISPASAT 36W-1, cataloged by the United States Space Force under NORAD ID 41942 and internationally designated 2017-006A, is a Spanish geostationary communications satellite operated by Hispasat. Launched in January 2017, it represents a generational advancement in the Hispasat fleet and has been assigned the formal designation Hispasat Advanced Generation 1, reflecting its role as the first of a new class of spacecraft for the Spanish operator. The satellite remains in orbit today, stationed above the geostationary belt and providing coverage from its fixed orbital position.

Mission and Purpose

HISPASAT 36W-1 is a commercial communications satellite in the Hispasat fleet, a network of spacecraft operated by the Spanish telecommunications company Hispasat. Hispasat has historically focused on providing broadcast, broadband, and government communication services primarily to Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and parts of North Africa and Europe — a coverage strategy that its newer generation of satellites is designed to extend and improve upon.

The "36W" designation in the satellite's name refers to its geostationary orbital slot at 36 degrees West longitude, a position in the geostationary arc that Hispasat has long used as a primary broadcast and data relay location. From this fixed point high above the equator, the satellite maintains a stationary position relative to the Earth's surface, making it ideally suited for continuous coverage of its service regions without the need for ground station antennas to track a moving target.

The mission type and current operational status of the satellite are not publicly detailed in the tracking catalog. What is broadly understood from public knowledge is that the "Advanced Generation" designation suggests the spacecraft incorporates more capable transponder technology and on-board flexibility compared to earlier Hispasat satellites, consistent with industry trends at the time of its construction and launch toward high-throughput satellite architectures. Hispasat 36W-1 was conceived to bolster connectivity services for its established customer base while offering expanded capacity.

Orbit and Tracking

HISPASAT 36W-1 occupies a near-perfect geostationary orbit, one of the most precisely maintained orbital regimes in spaceflight. Its current tracked orbital parameters confirm this classification clearly: the satellite has an apogee of 35,800 km and a perigee of 35,789 km, giving it an extremely circular orbit with a difference of only 11 km between its highest and lowest points. This near-zero eccentricity is characteristic of an operational geostationary satellite that has been raised from its initial transfer orbit and station-kept with precision.

The orbital inclination is recorded at 0.0°, meaning the satellite's orbital plane is aligned almost exactly with Earth's equatorial plane. This is the defining geometric condition of true geostationary orbit: a satellite at zero inclination over the equator, at the correct altitude, will appear to hover motionless over a fixed geographic point to any observer on the ground. The orbital period of HISPASAT 36W-1 is 1,436.1 minutes — very close to 23 hours and 56 minutes, which corresponds to one sidereal day, the rotation period of Earth relative to the stars. This synchronization of orbital period with Earth's rotation is what produces the satellite's apparent stationarity.

The satellite was launched on January 27, 2017 (Eastern Standard Time), which corresponds to January 28, 2017 in Universal Time and at the launch site. It was delivered initially to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) — an elongated elliptical orbit used as an intermediate step — before its onboard propulsion raised it to its final circular geostationary slot. As of the time of writing, HISPASAT 36W-1 has not decayed or reentered the atmosphere and continues to be tracked in its geostationary position.

At geostationary altitude, objects are tracked primarily by radar and optical means, and their catalog entries are maintained by organizations such as the 18th Space Defense Squadron of the United States Space Force, which issues the NORAD catalog numbers used worldwide. The COSPAR international designator 2017-006A identifies this object as the primary payload (suffix "A") of the sixth orbital launch of 2017 (designation "006"), originating in the year 2017.

Design and Operator

The satellite's manufacturer on record is Tesat-Spacecom, a German company well regarded in the space industry for producing communications payload hardware, particularly transponder and laser communication terminal equipment. This suggests that while another prime contractor may have been responsible for the satellite bus and overall system integration, Tesat-Spacecom's contribution at the payload level was significant enough to be recorded in the catalog against this object.

The satellite has a launch mass of 1,700 kg. This places it in the medium-class category for geostationary communications spacecraft. While larger commercial satellites in the geostationary belt frequently exceed 5,000 or even 6,000 kg, a satellite in the 1,700 kg range is consistent with a focused regional mission using a medium-class satellite bus, offering the operational advantages of a smaller, potentially more cost-effective platform without the mass overhead of a full heavy-class telecommunications spacecraft.

Hispasat, the operating company, is a Spanish satellite operator headquartered in Madrid. The company was founded in the early 1990s and has been majority-owned by Spanish state and private stakeholders over the course of its history. Its fleet has traditionally served the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America with direct-to-home broadcasting, broadband internet access, and government and corporate data services. HISPASAT 36W-1 fits within this established strategic framework as a successor-generation asset intended to meet growing demand for satellite capacity in those service areas.

Spain is recorded as the owner country of the satellite, consistent with Hispasat's Spanish corporate identity and the satellite's registration with Spanish national authorities. Satellites are registered under international treaty frameworks by the nation whose operator licenses and deploys them, and Spain's registration of HISPASAT 36W-1 reflects that legal and regulatory structure.

Current Status and Legacy

HISPASAT 36W-1 remains in orbit as of the current tracking data, with no reentry or decay event recorded. For geostationary satellites, end-of-life typically involves a controlled maneuver to raise the spacecraft into a higher "graveyard orbit," several hundred kilometers above the geostationary belt, in order to clear the valuable 35,786 km orbital arc for future users. This practice is mandated by international guidelines and widely followed by responsible operators. There is no indication in the current catalog entry that such a disposal maneuver has yet taken place, suggesting the satellite is either still operational or in a late-operational phase.

As the first satellite in Hispasat's "Advanced Generation" lineage, HISPASAT 36W-1 carries a degree of institutional significance for the operator beyond its raw capacity contribution. New satellite generations typically represent substantial capital investment and technology refresh cycles that shape an operator's competitive position for a decade or more. The satellite's operational history — while not detailed in public tracking records — would represent a meaningful chapter in Hispasat's development as a regional and transatlantic service provider.

From a broader industry perspective, 2017 was a transitional period for geostationary communications satellite operators as high-throughput satellite technology, flexible digital payloads, and the early emergence of large low-Earth orbit broadband constellations began to redefine the competitive landscape. A satellite launched into that environment with "advanced generation" characteristics reflects the industry's awareness at the time that capability differentiation would become increasingly important for established geostationary operators.

The NORAD catalog entry for object 41942 will remain a permanent record of this spacecraft regardless of its eventual operational fate. Objects in geostationary orbit — whether active, retired, or disposed of in graveyard orbit — are tracked and cataloged indefinitely, contributing to the broader picture of the space object environment that satellite operators, regulators, and researchers rely upon. HISPASAT 36W-1 thus occupies a small but defined place in the formal accounting of humanity's presence in Earth orbit, recorded precisely by its inclination, period, and altitude in the geostationary arc it shares with hundreds of other spacecraft from operators around the world.