AMC -14 story gets more interesting

[RandallA]

¡Me gustaría saber(conocer) también, pero podemos nosotros guardarlo(mantenerlo) en inglés por favor!

Not too bad Bob and you didn't misspell a word.

 

[digiblur]

Why is SES so dammed on collecting the insurance if there is life left on the bird.

Quick money... make all the money up front. They won't make much if they only lease it for 5 years.

It's not about morals and what is right and what might work out better for the public.

 

[goaliebob99]

Hehe.

Pardon me if my spanish is a little off!

 

[goaliebob99]

Not too bad Bob and you didn't misspell a word.

hahhahaha

 

[Peter Parker]

Maybe we should give up on satellites. Run fiber to everyone's home, quit polluting the orbital environment, quit polluting the RF environment, and exemplify the only appealing solution to the Fermi Paradox.

What does any of that have to do with Fermi's paradox?

 

[goldengoose]

All of this is probably posturing for higher percentage on the insurance settlement.

 

[rdinkel]

A good outcome would be for the insurance company to pay SES in full, but then try to recover some of their loss by selling the "junked" satellite. Nothing wrong with that!

 

[goaliebob99]

Quick money... make all the money up front. They won't make much if they only lease it for 5 years.

It's not about morals and what is right and what might work out better for the public.

Right, I'm assuming that Echostar has ticked off SES Americom by providing an alternative Carrier for feeds, so they don't want to scratch echo star's back because they are taking business away form SES by allowing commercial feeds on 105.5 and 121 slots. What is funny is that AMC14 isn't even being used for commercial services. If they keep this up, We might see a new press release from echo star announcing Boeing as their new partner for future birds. I know they just announced that loral space would be building them a new bird for launch on 2010.

 

[AriesGodofWar]

Any chance this was all an elaborate plan to try and hose E* before the bird left the ground?

 

[richiephx]

Why not sell it to the DOD. The fed govt will probably pay far more than it's worth anyway. Your tax dollars at work.

 

[goaliebob99]

Any chance this was all an elaborate plan to try and hose E* before the bird left the ground?

I dont think so, I think what happened to the rocket was a legit error, but SES isnt helping things by trying to make a quick buck.

 

[glen4cindy]

qué la cogida?

Such bad language!

 

[cmcnabb]

Tin Foil Hat Time.....

What if the reason SES doesn't want Echostar to have the satellite is because DirecTV promised them some sort of incentive to keep AMC-14 from being used for residential television service

 

[VinceT3]

DoD is buying it for target practice...

 

[Stacy A]

I've Been Waiting To Say This For A While Now. If It's Not Ready For Prime Time,and You're Commited To Release,what Do You Do? Read Between The Lines And You'll See What I See.

memoriesofmojo? Is that you?

 

[Bradtothebone]

I guess I'm confused. E* (not SES) has applied for permission from the FCC to de-orbit the spacecraft. Why would they do this if they were thinking seriously about buying the bird? And why E* instead of SES? You'd think that SES would be chompin' at the bit to get it down as fast as possible, to keep those stealin' bastards at E* from buying it.

Brad

 

[TheKrell]

Why would they do this if they were thinking seriously about buying the bird?

Excellent question! :up Another question is "Why should E* risk raising the apogee above geosynchronous altitude", rather than just firing the retros at apogee and boring down at the atmosphere at a steep angle? That is unless they intend to us the lunar flyby method of plane change. Or that other method of plane change involving L1?

 

[nlk10010]

I'm not privy to the ins and outs of the insurance settlement, etc., but it would seem that at best SES was insured for the amount it cost them to build the sat, not for lost profits from leasing space to Echostar. So it's a game: SES is trying to make sure that if Echostar benefits so do THEY; i.e. they want some of the profit they WOULD have made.

I think.

But then maybe not.

 

[bwinroc]

My two and half cents:

My stupid-layman analogy:

I go and buy a new car off the lot. As they are pulling it around for me to pick it up, it hits a pole and is borderline totalled. The dealership offers to repair it and give me a deal on it, or get me a new one (which may take a few weeks longer). I would chose to take a brand new card, even if it took a little longer, maybe make them throw in floor mats. If the dealership turns around and sells the thing just to make offset their loss, so be it. Maybe the original car lasts 20years without any problems, oh well. Not worth the risk.

Echostar should just run away from this thing. They paid X for a bird that will provide service for Y years. The fact that SES is not making an offer to Echostar is a non-issue. Why even risk accepting some kind of deal for something that could fail somewhere between tomorrow and 10 years from now? Sure, AMC-14 may last its entire projected life in orbit; however chances are it will not. Let someone else deal with that risk. Lord knows they need stable birds in the air if they are ever going to catch up with D*.

 

[k1wy-bill]

Amc Slight orbit change

Looking at the orbital parameters of AMC-14 there has been some slight changes made to the orbit. Nothing big but changed. Perigee raised by 35 miles and a slight rise of apogee. Looks like a bit of "tweaking" going on.

For those interested below are the latest orbital parameters for AMC-14.


NORAD # 32708
COSPAR designator 2008-011-A
Epoch (UTC) 2008-04-23 04:18:03
Orbit # at Epoch 91
Inclination 48.989
RA of A. Node 161.714
Eccentricity 0.7085880
Argument of Perigee 4.360
Revs per day 2.25663591
Period 10h 38m 07s (638.12 min)
Semi-major axis 24 552 km
Perigee x Apogee 777 x 35 572 km
BStar (drag term) 0.000000000 1/ER
Mean anomaly 359.681
Propagation model SDP4
Element number / age 32 / 1 day(s)
StdMag (MaxMag) / RCS N/A
Diameters N/A
Satellite group Geostationary