What's happening with the Sat Launch?

[tigerfan33]

The bad thing is with the last launch failure, we all thought Charlie had a back up plan. Then we found out that there was none and blamed lack of hd on launch failures. I wonder if Chuck has a back up plan??? Did he learn from the last launch??

We will see, and it better be "SOON"

 

[BrianMis]

Don't gloat yet.. You guys have one going up on Monday. You might give it bad karma.

I wan't gloating, this does not make me happy. I was just making the point that you guys sound like your lives are going into a tailspin because of this.

Space flight is dangerous and things like this happen. It's not the end of the world is all I'm trying to say. Things will be ok tomorrow. Companies like ILS and SeaLaunch know it can happen. It was unexpected and unforturnate, but your tv will still work tomorrow.

ILS has put up at least 5 sats for SES and they lost 1. Hardly a failing record.

 

[Scroll]

But you can bet that There won't be any Proton launches for a long time while they study what went wrong.. So in essence the Cosmodrome is shut down too for a while.. This will put their schedule way behind too..

Lots of irony to go around with this story.

Yesterday a Delta2 had another problem free launch out of Florida. I remember a time when it was US rockets having problems and Russian rockets that were pretty dependable.

Another (going by 3rd hand knowledge & speculation here) part of the reason Dominion SkyAngel (which was located on the current 61.5) was forced to end DBS service and move to IPTV (which probably will flop) is because Dish would not renew the contract without new terms that made the deal impractical. I'm thinking some bad karma there!

Adding to the misery - VOOM

Also, we have a perfectly good space shuttle docked at a space station yet nobody can come to the rescue. I can see a case now being made for a permanently docked mini shuttle or something to be the world's first galactic on call towing service.


I'm sure there are more, like second guessing the D* & E* merger.

As for a "plan B" that some have wondered about if you really think about it you can't blame Charlie & company at this point given the history that has cumulated to what it is today. The better question is how best to move on. Baring a "miracle" (back to that bad karma thing again) looks like this rocket and all the hopes & dreams for it are toast.

 

[concord]

New series, Lost In Space.....

 

[rad]

Is Direct TVs satellite launch Monday going to be on Dish TV?

Very doubtful, but you can watch it online at Sea Launch Mission page - DIRECTV 11.

 

[Beagle]

as a general rule the russian rockets are prone to failure,they have had more failures than any other launch facility.i know they charge less than cape kennedy, but if you use a u.s. made rocket launched from the cape,even though it cost more,you can depend that the satellite will reach its its destination.

 

[Madtown HD Junkie]

damn.....I was out last night and missed the launch and just got on the PC to see the breaking news on the FP

What a bummer....We're upset, but,imagine how E* must feel.

Did the satellite for sure take a

?

Oddly enough my 18 months is up today with E*, so sadly if some news is not forth coming in a couple weeks about alternate plans for more HD I will switch back to D*. To bad this happened as competition is good for all.

when do you thin we can expect an update from E* on this? any guesses?

 

[charlesrshell]

Very doubtful, but you can watch it online at Sea Launch Mission page - DIRECTV 11.

Thanks

 

[rdinkel]

THERE IS STILL SOME HOPE:

"Roskosmos said it would now be up to SES Americom to decide what to do with the satellite. The cost of telecommunications satellites can run into tens of millions of dollars (euros).

The satellite blasted off on a Russian Proton-M rocket at 02:18 am Moscow time (1118 GMT) from Kazakhstan's Soviet-era Baikonur cosmodrome, which is leased to Russia and carries out dozens of launches every year, officials said.

But the Briz-M booster failed 10 minutes later and the satellite is lower than the planned orbit of around 35,000 kilometres (21,750 miles) above Earth.

Russian space officials were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the satellite could use its own engines to reach the required orbit.

"The communications satellite has not been destroyed and could be used in a lower orbit or go into a higher orbit using its engines," an unnamed official from Russia's state space agency Roskosmos was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

Another Russian space official told Interfax: "Specialists can try and use the satellite's own engines to raise it into a higher orbit. But that would reduce the 15-year lifetime of the satellite."

 

[Poke]

This is so stupid!! Man they need to start putting their Sats up here in the U.S. not using 3rd party junk in foreign lands..

 

[Primus]

THERE IS STILL SOME HOPE:

"Roskosmos said it would now be up to SES Americom to decide what to do with the satellite. The cost of telecommunications satellites can run into tens of millions of dollars (euros).

The satellite blasted off on a Russian Proton-M rocket at 02:18 am Moscow time (1118 GMT) from Kazakhstan's Soviet-era Baikonur cosmodrome, which is leased to Russia and carries out dozens of launches every year, officials said.

But the Briz-M booster failed 10 minutes later and the satellite is lower than the planned orbit of around 35,000 kilometres (21,750 miles) above Earth.

Russian space officials were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the satellite could use its own engines to reach the required orbit.

"The communications satellite has not been destroyed and could be used in a lower orbit or go into a higher orbit using its engines," an unnamed official from Russia's state space agency Roskosmos was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

Another Russian space official told Interfax: "Specialists can try and use the satellite's own engines to raise it into a higher orbit. But that would reduce the 15-year lifetime of the satellite."

This is good news. Although, we don't even have separation yet so there could be issues even with that. I wonder what impact a lower orbit would have on the birds capability to broadcast to certain areas. I think any kind of salvation would be good at this point.

 

[Poke]

Yeah the Direct TV folks better hope they aren't using the same Russian Junk.. I could easily see same thing happing here again at this point..

 

[rad]

Yeah the Direct TV folks better hope they aren't using the same Russian Junk.. I could easily see same thing happing here again at this point..

SeaLaunch, which is doing D11, also uses Russian built hardware.

 

[jayn_j]

This is good news. Although, we don't even have separation yet so there could be issues even with that. I wonder what impact a lower orbit would have on the birds capability to broadcast to certain areas. I think any kind of salvation would be good at this point.

A lower orbit is useless for a comm satellite. There is only one geosynchronous orbit. In this orbit, the sat will slowly drift to the east and not stay in the fixed location necessary for stat5ionary dishes.

Also 22k miles up is too high for the shuttle, although that was always impractical. AMC-14's only hope is to do the separation, use its engines to get it to 61.5 and then start planning immediately for a replacement for that slot. It takes years to get a satellite approved, built and launched. If they can still get 5 years out of the satellite, they might just salvage this. However, I'm not sure if they have the resources to go to the temp slot first. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[Poke]

SeaLaunch, which is doing D11, also uses Russian built hardware.

Well I feel for them they all better hope for the best.. Maybe they will learn their lesson here finally in that. Quite doing Cheap Launchs with poorly made hardware from countries like Russian. Spend the money do it right and use U.S. Hardware and U.S. launch sites..

 

[OV_HDFan]

This is good news. Although, we don't even have separation yet so there could be issues even with that. I wonder what impact a lower orbit would have on the birds capability to broadcast to certain areas. I think any kind of salvation would be good at this point.

I read somewhere the payload was deployed. So according to the speculation I read at Spaceflightnow they already had separation.

 

[mperdue]

as a general rule the russian rockets are prone to failure,they have had more failures than any other launch facility.i know they charge less than cape kennedy, but if you use a u.s. made rocket launched from the cape,even though it cost more,you can depend that the satellite will reach its its destination.

Just picking a nit... It's the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral...

Mario

 

[nlk10010]

This is good news. Although, we don't even have separation yet so there could be issues even with that. I wonder what impact a lower orbit would have on the birds capability to broadcast to certain areas. I think any kind of salvation would be good at this point.

I thought I read that there was separation, which actually was not a good thing since the satellite would need to use its own thrusters to reach orbit, which could take months in and of itself and, apart from using fuel, require a large expenditure for tracking all that time.

On top of which, if it does reach orbit, there may be problems with insurance payouts.

Dish has to have a Plan B; they're too big a company not to. Let's see how smart Charlie really is: it's not the end of the world.

 

[dijohn76]

"In an update posted on its Web site, Roscosmos said the stage and the AMC 14 payload reached an orbit with a high point of about 17,400 miles, about 5,000 miles short of the intended altitude at the end of the burn.
The Breeze M deployed the spacecraft shortly after the early engine shutdown, and SES AMERICOM will now be faced with making future plans for the stranded satellite, Roscosmos said. AMC 14 could reach its target orbit if there is enough space fuel on-board, or officials could elect to use a dramatic lunar fyby to use the moon's gravity to slingshot the craft into geosynchronous orbit. Such a maneuver succeeded in 1998 for AsiaSat 3, another satellite victim of a Proton failure." From Spaceflightnow.

Sounds like there are still some options that are up to SES Americon now.

 

[Poke]

Yeah well lets all hope they quit being cheap on who,where, and how they do their launches from here on out..