A year after the first CS-class satellites were launched, the BS
(Broadcasting Satellite) program was inaugurated with the flight
of BSE (Experimental) also known as Yuri. As the name implies,
BS satellites are designed for television broadcasting and were
initially developed for the Japanese Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications and for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation
(NHK). All BS satellites have been located at 110 degrees E and
have been of the same basic configuration: 3-axis stabilization
of a rectangular spacecraft bus with two elongated solar arrays.
The 350-kg BSE was followed in 1984 and 1986 by the operational
and essentially identical BS-2a and BS-2b, respectively. Each
spacecraft carried two active and one spare 100 W. 14/12 GHz
transponders. Built by Toshiba with assistance from General
Electric, the BS-2 series were designed for five years of
operations. BS-2a was moved to a graveyard orbit in 1989,
followed by BS-2b in 1992. After losing two BS spacecraft in
launch accidents (Ariane in F