For those who would like to Track AMC14

This has to be one of the most fastenating posts I have read. Its up (yeah) its down (it's gonna crash!!) There is humor and there is drama. This is almost as good as an old Star Trek episode. Any second I expect to hear Scottie say "There's no use Captain -- she's goin' down for the last time and there is nothing I can do!":)

So far Captain Kirk (Charlie and SES) haven't responded.
 
Is it just me or is this thing getting higher with every apogee/perigee revolution? I haven't been watching it that closely so I really don't know. These altitude numbers just seem higher than a couple days ago to me, but maybe it's the paint fumes.
 
No need to be rude, Smith. I just pulled up the website and noticed the altitude on the way down and don't remember it being that high before. I don't have any previous numbers to give, hence my post. I was only looking for input from others to see if anyone has been logging these.
 
Right now, it's about 1200 km above South America and FALLING at about 2-3 KM a second. If this is accurate and the trend keeps up, this sat will be gone within the hour.
 
Does no one read this thread before they post? AMC-14 is currently in a highly elliptical orbit, and thus the "elevation" readings will vary between 475 miles I think it was, and 17,000 miles or something like that.
 
Going back up. . .not sure about the physics on sat orbits but as soon as it "eclipsed" the sat started rising again.

EDIT: Just read VT's posts, now I understand
 
We could put up a new set of Keps that show Rainbow-1 in an elliptical orbit and these people would flip out, even while they're watching HD at 61.5. :) I mean why not have a little fun with peoples inability to read?

Keps aren't worth too much of a damn when the sat's status isn't well known. For all we know they've been working to move it into position. We won't have a trustworthy set of data until they either deorbit it or put it into the right position.
 
ALERT **** This just in from Lockheed and SES Americom**

March 20, 2008 -- Princeton, NJ -- SES AMERICOM, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), today confirmed that its AMC-14 satellite failed to reach its intended orbit following its launch on board a Russian Proton Breeze-M launch vehicle on March 15. An anomaly during the second burn of the fourth stage of the rocket resulted in the satellite being placed short of the planned geostationary transfer orbit.
"While we are not in a position to comment on the possible causes of this launch anomaly, the satellite is healthy and is operating nominally in a stable orbit under the control of Lockheed Martin. SES and Lockheed Martin engineers are currently exploring various options for bringing AMC-14 into its proper geostationary orbit," said Martin Halliwell, President of SES ENGINEERING.
AMC-14 was built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, with launch services from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan provided by ILS (International Launch Services).
In all of the various scenarios to redirect the spacecraft, onboard fuel will have to be used to propel the satellite to its correct orbital position, thereby reducing its service life. SES’ investment in AMC-14 is insured for partial and total loss.
The spacecraft is entirely contracted by EchoStar Corporation and is intended to operate at the orbital position of 61.5 degrees West.
"We are confident that the engineering teams at Lockheed Martin and SES will find a way to place AMC-14 into the correct orbit in a manner that our customer’s requirements can be met," said Edward Horowitz, President and CEO of SES AMERICOM. "We cannot, at this time, speculate on the impact of the orbit raising activities on both the in-service date and the service life of AMC-14. We will provide additional information in due time."
 
Does anyone know when the moon will be directly above AMC-14 for a lunar pull to help get it to the proper height? Would be interesting to know what date that might be. I check this site to see when the Moon might be close to the Earth:

timehttp://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/moonorbit.html

If I am right the first time the Moon will be close enough is April 7th? This is not really my bag but I find this very interesting but I do not have the expertise to determine what I would like to know. Does anyone know how to take this information and couple it with the tracking information to determine a future possible lunar date with AMC14?
 
Last edited:

Lost 61.5

Something up with 5Max's launch?

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts