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Shared Communications Satellite Lofted Into Orbit by Sea Launch
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer
posted: 12:40 am ET
08 August 2003
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A pair of commercial satellite operators plan to share the single communications platform sent into Earth orbit late Thursday atop a Ukrainian Zenit 3SL rocket. Depending on which company you talk to, the satellite known as either Echo Star 9 or Telstar 13 was successfully blasted into space by Sea Launch from the Odyssey platform in the Pacific Ocean. Liftoff of Sea Launch's tenth commercial mission came right on time at 11:31 p.m. EDT (0331 GMT Friday). Spacecraft separation took place about 66 minutes later with the satellite injected into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The 10,443-pound (4,737-kilogram) satellite built by Space Systems/Loral is to circularize its orbit during the next few days and eventually hover over the equator at 121 degrees West Longitude, where it is to go into service later this year. Designed around Space Systems/Loral's model 1300 spacecraft bus, officials expect the satellite will operate for 15 years. Echo Star 9 describes the Ku- and Ka-band transponders that will be operated by Echo Star Communications Corp. and provide additional direct broadcast television service via its DISH Network. Telstar 13, meanwhile, describes the C-band transponders that will be operated by Loral Skynet to provide cable television service covering North America, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Central America.Sea Launch is a consortium of companies that include Boeing of Seattle, RSC-Energia of Moscow, Kvaerner of Oslo and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Meanwhile, Boeing officials reported Thursday that their next launch of a Delta 4 rocket carrying a military communications satellite is now being targeted for Aug. 28. The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle is being kept in a nearly "launch ready" condition at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's pad 37 in the event that an opening appears on the U.S. Eastern Range. An Air Force Titan 4 is scheduled to launch on Aug. 17, and a Boeing Delta 2 carrying NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility is to fly Aug. 23. Should either launch have a problem that delays it several days, the Delta 4 mission might slip into the rotation. The Delta 4 was scheduled to launch Aug. 4 but was delayed due to a problem antenna on the rocket's range destruct system. That trouble has been resolved. Finally, the next launch to orbit is expected Aug. 12 when a Russian Soyuz U rocket is to carry a "Cosmos" satellite into orbit for the Russian military from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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