CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Message to Sea Launch from XM Satellite Radio: "You rock!"
The commercial launch firm responsible for flying Zenit 3SL rockets from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean earned that praise Sunday by successfully sending XM Satellite's first digital radio broadcasting spacecraft -- dubbed "Rock" -- into Earth orbit.
A second satellite nicknamed "Roll" is to follow on the next Sea Launch mission targeted for mid-May.
When safely operating in space, perhaps as early as this summer, the two satellites are to beam 100 channels of premium radio programming to special receivers installed in cars and trucks across the nation. Much of the programming will be commercial free and originally produced by XM Satellite Radio at its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
"It's a very good day," XM Satellite Radio president Hugh Panero said Sunday after the launch. "There's going to be a great choice of satellite radio that is going to come out this summer."
Sirius Satellite Radio of New York City is the other choice Panero speaks of. Sirius already has their satellites in space and company officials say they will soon begin rolling out their service.
The monthly price for the XM radio band -- the natural evolution following the AM and FM bands, company officials say -- is expected to be about $9.95. Customers will be able to choose from programs representing almost every category of music, plus content from the company's partners including Sesame Street Workshop, NASCAR, CNBC, USA TODAY, One-On-One Sports, Hispanic Broadcast Corporation, C-SPAN Radio, Clear Channel and DIRECTV.
Automotive partners include General Motors Corporation, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., American Isuzu, Suzuki and Freightliner. Satellite receivers will be featured options on cars and trucks manufactured by these companies.
Sunday's space shot began at 5:33:30 p.m. EST (22:33:30 GMT) and it took about one hour for the three-stage booster to inject the XM-2 spacecraft into its proper orbit.
A launch attempt in January of the XM-1 "Roll" spacecraft was aborted at the last minute and forced Sea Launch to return their vessels to homeport in Long Beach, Calif. A suspected problem on the satellite was to blame but that turned out to be a false alarm.
Nevertheless, the countdown ticked too close to zero and pre-ignition fluids were released into the Russian main engines, requiring major work at home port to get them ready to go again.
A decision was soon made to go ahead and fly the XM-2 "Rock" spacecraft first, followed by the second try of XM-1 in mid May.
"We kind of stubbed our toe in January, but I knew that the team would recover," said Sea Launch president Will Trafton. "We all pulled together and we all knew what had to be done."
The payoff came Sunday when the primarily Ukranian-built Zenit rocket delivered the satellite to an orbit that was within 72 feet (22 meters) of where it was supposed to be.
Said Trafton: "This is your basic space bull's eye."
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