AMC-2 to Serve North America

[Trip]

Saw an FCC public notice this morning that SES was granted permission to reorient its AMC-2 satellite to serve North America on C- and Ku-bands.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db0411/DA-14-489A1.pdf

It will be at 80.85 degrees.

- Trip

 

[Lone Gunman]

Info shows AMC5 at 81W now. Will AMC2 take it's place or will we have two sats sitting in the same position in the arc?

 

[lost_mesa]

AMC 2 is in an inclined orbit of 2.0912 degrees. Not surprising since it was launched 17 years ago. What I find surprising is the FCC notice mentions using it for direct-to-home service in the FSS band, 11.7 to 12.2 GHz. Seems unlikely they would use an inclined bird for direct-to-home service, or is that just a standard use mentioned for all Ku band birds?

AMC 5 is inclined 3.1858 degrees.

 

[KC9TIK]

AMC 2 is in an inclined orbit of 2.0912 degrees. AMC 5 is inclined 3.1858 degrees.

That's quite a bit of precision. Where did you get that information from?

With them being end of life, I wonder how much more use they expect to get from them.

 

[lost_mesa]

That's quite a bit of precision. Where did you get that information from?
.

The information came from http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/ but I'm not sure of the original source. Maybe NASA or NORAD?

For example, this describes the orbit of AMC-2. The second number in the second line is the inclination of the orbit to the equator:

AMC-2 (GE-2)
1 24713U 97002A 14102.44481791 -.00000233 00000-0 10000-3 0 8274
2 24713 2.0912 72.7494 0005137 263.7207 303.3485 1.00270316 13807

 

[skysurfer]

Info shows AMC5 at 81W now. Will AMC2 take it's place or will we have two sats sitting in the same position in the arc?

AMC-5 is going to be retired shortly.