Sinosat 1 (Xinnuo 1, Intelsat APR 1) → ZX 5B (Chinasat 5B)

Sinosat 1 [Aerospatiale]

Sino Satellite Communications was formed in 1994 with Chinese participation of China Aerospace Corp (CASC), Commission of Defence Science & Technology [COSTIND], People's Bank of China and the Government of Shanghai. Sino Satellite was formed in an effort to overturn ChinaSat's domination [along with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications] of the Chinese satellite communications market.

Aérospatiale built Xinnuo 1 (Sinosat 1) at its facilities in Cannes, with delivery in november 1997 of the satellite to the customer, the Chinese-German company Euraspace, acting on behalf of Sinosatcom, a Chinese company. This was the fifth satellite using the Spacebus-3000A platform.

It is a powerful three-axis satellite with a liftoff weight of 2,820kg. Its solar array, spanning 26 meters, supplies over 5 kW to the payload of twenty-four C-band channels (36 MHz) and fourteen Ku-band channels (54 MHz). Three antennas, including two deployable antennas measuring 1.6 and 1.8 meters in diameter, and a 1m in diameter fixed antenna, cover the targeted zone from an orbital position at 110.5&degree; East on the geostationary orbit, during a life span exceeding 15 years.

The CZ-3B launcher launched the satellite from the Xichang launch site in the People's Republic of China in July 1998. The satellite provides a range of telecommunications services (including television, telephony, and inter-banking data transmission) covering all China, the Indo-Chinese peninsula, Indonesia and the Philippines.

In 2010, the satellite was taken over by China Satcom and renamed ZX 5B (Chinasat 5B).