D* Satellite Launch Info

[Barney]

Oct, 27, 2005...........the 1st group of 12 was to be July.....lookes like it might be delayed a while longer...........maybe by next July 2006, remember the order for the MPEG4 decoders was for the 1st half of the order sometime in July.......no mention of the last half....sorry, but D* cried wolf, big time. They say 700.000 Hd customers....its really 699,999.....& they are still calling me to sign-up again...... (have 94 cents credit)........I'm #54 on the list, anyone on #105 etc.....its going to be along time my friends, & they still have other launches....along time my friends.......just now doing beta testing on the R15 (SD-DVR....).
I'm glad I bought a Sony (LG) HD300 $600......at least I can get HD by OTA.....& don't have to pay D* anything.....by the way, I love D* & want it back, w a HD-DVR & alot more HD programming that isn't HD-lite.

Barney

uncrules, I edited my numbers....

 

[uncrules]

Not to interrupt your rant but it is 700,000 HD customers, not 70,000. The thread title in the HDTV forum is wrong.

 

[Mtnmike]

Barney,

You need to get back on your meds.

 

[billbillw]

I found some other news that says the Telkom 2 satellite, which is supposed to share its trip to orbit with Spaceway 2, is not even at Arianespace right now. It is in Virginia at Orbital's manufacturing facility. I think we will be looking at an October launch. Orbital is supposed to finish up and ship the Telkom sat back to Ariane sometime later this month.

 

[Pete In Plano]

I can't believe that D* didn't have a deal that would force them to launch with just their payload after a month or two of the other payload being unavailable. Ariane really SUCKS!!!!!!

 

[calypsocowboy]

I'm sure part of that is the satellite, I'm sure it takes more than a couple months to reconfigure the satellite deployment to handle one satellite. The mistake some one made was putting the two satellites up together but I'm sure D* also got a discount for doing that. So basically I'm thinking by D* trying to save a buck it bit them in the butt.

 

[sltmag]

I know Lyngsat is showing 10/29 for the launch of Spaceway2, but there is an Ariane 5 launch on 9/29 with only one payload. Do the Ariane's need to be dual payload? If so, could Spaceway swap launch spots for 9/29? Just asking, because a successful launch at the beginning of October would seem to be the easiest way to get MPEG4 up and running by November. Otherwise, I would not expect to see anything by at least Thanksgiving. Swapping dishes in the middle of winter would not be fun!

 

[colofan]

Which leads me to a question as to why can't we buy the dish now for self installs and then we would be ready for the deployment whenever that is. Maybe Robert from VE has an idea

 

[Pete In Plano]

Just moved and used the "Movers Connection" to setup my system. (Yes, I signed for another year commitment but I will be keeping it well past that anyway). Very timely and competent installer. Did great job tacking cables, ran all thru a 4 banger ground block, grounded to water pipe. I asked him about the new dishes and he said they were told they would be swapping them out in November and December. Actually a good thing here in Texas (will be 70 degrees instead of 105 degrees), but may be a problem in the frigid North!!! But, better them then me up on the roof anyway!!!

 

[billbillw]

Well, looks like Spaceway 2 is NOT the next flight from Arianespace. They have just updated their mission status and the next flight on Sept 29 is a dual satellite launch, but not the Spaceway/Telkom combo we were expecting. Instead it is a Syracuse/Galaxy combo.
http://www.arianespace.com/site/news/news_sub_missionupdate_index.html

 

[hancox]

eh? It wasn't supposed to be the next one...

ETA is still late October, unless something funky happens...

 

[hancox]

BTW - I would keep an eye on this URL after 9/29 for updates:

http://www.arianespace.com/site/launchstatus/status_sub_index.html

 

[donyoop]

I thought that the Ariane site down there in French Guiana could handle parallel launches. Could it be further delays with Telcom 2?

Don

 

[Iwanthd]

No, they found "an anomaly on an element of the A5 launch vehicle" for the Syracuse 3A/Galaxy 5 launch that was scheduled for Sept 29.

 

[moonman]

If you check the Nov. sked., it say's S/W2 was delayed from April, while Telcom2
has been delayed 3 times, one of them being Oct. 27.
http://www.orbireport.com/Log.html

 

[sltmag]

Not sure what a "few days" means. I would say this would delay the launch until Monday at the earliest (Galax). I would think Spaceway would be delayed about a week. Yep..into November. I was actually thinking of posting a poll as to what the delay will be next. Seems like that question was already answered. Unreal.

 

[donyoop]

"Our capability to process numerous satellites in parallel is extremely important, and is the result of investments that we have made in our ground infrastructure," Le Gall said. "The modern S5 satellite processing facility at Europe's Spaceport has handled as many as six spacecraft at a time - which is unmatched anywhere in the world."

It seems like if this is true and not just Ariane PR hot air, there should be no delay at all unless there actually was a delay to Telcom 2.

Don

 

[naldoron]

The ONLY reason I have D* over cable is Sunday Ticket. If Cable had Sunday Ticket it would be NO CONTEST.

 

[charper1]

Funny considering it's ALL the LAUNCH FACILITY'S problems and DirecTV is stuck in the middle.

 

[rad]

Funny considering it's ALL the LAUNCH FACILITY'S problems and DirecTV is stuck in the middle.

Actually wasn't it the other satellite that was sharing the launch the original delay, isn't the latest due to a problem that Ariane discovered with the current launch that's pusing things back? Spread the blame around.