ECHOSTAR XI - Scheduled Launch Date July 17th

[ScoBuck]

According to the very reliable Anik and posted at NasaSpaceFlight.com.

Sea/Land Launch schedule

 

[ScoBuck]

July 17 date also listed at Gunter's (click on link for planned 2008 launches):

Gunter's Space Page - Information on Launch vehicles, Satellites, Space Shuttle and Astronautics

 

[jansan]

Thanks for the information.

 

[Tyralak]

Which slot is this going in?

 

[RandallA]

Which slot is this going in?

110W

 

[bayoufats]

Will it just be a spare at 110, or will it have spotbeams for locals, or will the old 110 be moved somewhere else?

 

[andyb2]

E8 will supposedly move to 77 along with E2 for the time being.

 

[digiblur]

This is a high power CONUS bird for 110. As stated it will free up a spare or two. AK and HI users should get the most out of this one as they should be able to see the national HD with no issues allowing some other HD channels to be swapped into their 110 HD spotbeam that has national HD.

 

[Rey]

between this sat and the new sat for 129 plus the EA 72 77w, will this give us a good amount of capacity for more national HD or will we have to wait a long time?

 

[hrxtreme]

Ciel-2, IMO, is the gold mine... I think Q1 '09 is the date now?

 

[Rey]

yes but ciel-2 won't help the east coast. so i'm wondering if the 72&77 w sats will give the eastern coast more capacity or will it just even us out to what we have now with 110 119 & 61.5?

 

[navychop]

With Eastern Arc, using 61.5, 72 & 77, and all MPEG-4, it should have more space for more channels, HD included. But that will be a separate plan, offered at first only to new subs.

 

[HDRoberts]

I highly doubt that we will see stuff added to the eastern arc that won't be mirrored on existing slots (for a while, at least). Far too many of us not pointing at 72.7 or 77 who would demand upgrades.

 

[navychop]

Oh, I wouldn't expect much the first year or so. It's just a setup for things to come. My guess is, it's a dodge to avoid massive costs connected with upgrading non-MPEG-4 receivers. A dodge I wholly support, BTW.

 

[kstuart]

Back to the OP's topic, EchoStar 11 is a very high power satellite that will replace EchoStar 8.

The high power has two advantages:

- Less Rain Fade
- More Bandwidth, because amount of error correction bits can be reduced. Of course, this means more space for more channels.

I'm still waiting for one of the techie guys here to do the calculation of how much increased bandwidth we will get at 110...

 

[Rey]

would the amc 14 really have made that much of a difference for HD?

 

[kstuart]

would the amc 14 really have made that much of a difference for HD?

No, the difference would be down the line in terms of bandwidth available for "Eastern Arc".

Currently, Dish has room for 20 HD channels that they do not have contracts to provide - since they are trying to get the prices of the channels to fit into the "HD Only package" pricing...

 

[bruin95]

With E*'s past luck, let's just hope this bird actually makes it to where it needs to go.

 

[eckertman]

Back to the OP's topic, EchoStar 11 is a very high power satellite that will replace EchoStar 8.

The high power has two advantages:

- Less Rain Fade
- More Bandwidth, because amount of error correction bits can be reduced. Of course, this means more space for more channels.
I'm still waiting for one of the techie guys here to do the calculation of how much increased bandwidth we will get at 110...

Thank God for that. I know that I will enjoy watching more Educator tv. But, I wish they would bring back Ozzie and Harriet.

 

[Derwin0]

yes but ciel-2 won't help the east coast. so i'm wondering if the 72&77 w sats will give the eastern coast more capacity or will it just even us out to what we have now with 110 119 & 61.5?

Depending on it's footprint, it actually could.

The east coast can see 129, it problem is that the satellite there was designed for 110 & 119, so it's footprint is shifted westward (for example, I can get 148, but not 129). More than likely Ceil 2 will be designed to cover the northeast (especially since it's a Canadian satellite and will likely need to cover New Brunswick).

So 129 could be good for those in the East who have no LOS to 61.5 and no need for LiL.