Nimiq 5 Launch Scheduled for September 18

You guys are reading that wrong... it says Nimiq5 has 32. It does not say Echostar will have use of the 32. Nevermind... I skipped a part while I was skimming for 32 and 16 ;)
E* will have full use of all 32 TP's. Digital Home - Nimiq 5 satellite launches today

In addition to announcing today's launch, Telesat announced that it has completed agreements with Bell TV and EchoStar Corporation which would see Echostar make full use of Nimiq 5 rather than splitting capacity with Bell. Previously EchoStar had contracted for just half the capacity of Nimiq 5.

Previously Telesat had said that Bell would be using a substantial portion of the satellite's 32 Ku-band transponders.

In a written statement issued today, Telesat says Bell TV has now agreed to utilize a new Telesat direct broadcast satellite which is planned for construction beginning in the first quarter of 2010. EchoStar, which had previously contracted for half the capacity of Telesat's new Nimiq 5 satellite, has now committed to use the entire available Nimiq 5 payload for the anticipated 15-year life of the satellite.
 
As was pointed out in the chat, it seems the Canadians won't let anyone lease more than half a Canadian sat until launch day to make sure no Canadians want it.
 
Wow I just checked out the other satellite forum...

Not even a MENTION of todays satellite launch over there.

I guess if the news isn't DirecTV news then its not considered news at all.

Thanks to everyone who joined us in our chat this afternoon, we actually had over 80 people in there!

GO NIMIQ 5!
 
Yep, and rocatman started a thread identical to this one there at the same time as this one, and it has no replies, while this is reply 86.

Actually, I did find mention. In the DirecTV 12 thread. They are all pissed of that W7 is up next, pushing their sat (and potentially more HD) until December at least.
 
I wanted to get back to the issue of the 16 TPs versus 32 perhaps as a carryover from the other thread. Unless the new DirecTV agreement with Telesat changed with this lease agreement extension, I was under the impression that once a new satellite was launched and put in place at 72.7 W, the DirecTV lease would expire. I know this may not make a lot of sense with the lease agreement extension but certainly there is the possibility that Nimiq 5 won't make it to 72.7 W. Does anyone know if DirecTV has duplicated all the channels from that slot to one of their other slots?
 
Well, I just did a quick cross reference between the original (and probably outdated) list of 72.5 DirecTV locals (http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/9614-directv-locals-72-5-sat.html) and their current HD locals list (DIRECTV: HD Locals, locals in HD)

I saw only one market on the original 72.5 list that does not seem to have at least some HD locals (and thus I would assume a full complement of MPEG4 locals): Johnson City, Tenn.-Bristol, Va. /Tenn.- Kingsport, Tenn.

And who knows, maybe they are on in MPEG4, but just not HD.

If DirecTV is forced to get it;s 72.5 Dish swap in gear, there would be no issues with Dish getting all of them. 32 CONUS TPs are enough for 224 HD channels at Dish's current 7/TP approach. Dish could easily dedicate all of 77 / Quetzsat-1 to locals.

I wonder if Dish will ever have a program to swap our 110/119/61.5 setups for 1000.4's or 1000.2's, so that Dish won't have to keep 61.5 and 129 mirrors on CONUS.
 
Things still seem to be "nominal'

Posted by ILS Communications Team, 5:06 p.m. EDT on 17 September 2009
As the Breeze M upper stage of our Proton M rocket continues its climb into space with the Nimiq 5 satellite, we have received confirmation that the 2nd burn of the upper stage occurred and shut down as scheduled.
The next events are scheduled for about 2 hours from now. The Breeze M upper stage will ignite for a 3rd time and burn for approximately 14 minutes; after that the additional propellant tank will be jettisoned, and the 4th burn will start and complete. All this will happen in a span of almost 20 minutes while the vehicle is again out of range of a ground station. We should reacquire the vehicle shortly after the 4th burn ends.
Nimiq 5 Second Burn Completion
 
Well, I just did a quick cross reference between the original (and probably outdated) list of 72.5 DirecTV locals (http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/9614-directv-locals-72-5-sat.html) and their current HD locals list (DIRECTV: HD Locals, locals in HD)

I saw only one market on the original 72.5 list that does not seem to have at least some HD locals (and thus I would assume a full complement of MPEG4 locals): Johnson City, Tenn.-Bristol, Va. /Tenn.- Kingsport, Tenn.

And who knows, maybe they are on in MPEG4, but just not HD.

If DirecTV is forced to get it;s 72.5 Dish swap in gear, there would be no issues with Dish getting all of them. 32 CONUS TPs are enough for 224 HD channels at Dish's current 7/TP approach. Dish could easily dedicate all of 77 / Quetzsat-1 to locals.

I wonder if Dish will ever have a program to swap our 110/119/61.5 setups for 1000.4's or 1000.2's, so that Dish won't have to keep 61.5 and 129 mirrors on CONUS.

I did some additional research and it appears that DirecTV's lease agreement is good until sometime in 2011. I don't think DirecTV needs all 16 TPs and should be phasing subscribers off the 72.5 W slot so it would be possible that Dish could get use of more TPs perhaps 20 - 24 initially if DirecTV and Telesat would agree to that but probably the likelihood is slim.
 
Continuing on schedule:

We have confirmed that the Breeze M upper stage has successfully completed its 3rd & 4th burns, as well as jettisoning its additional propellant tank. The vehicle is now in a 5-hour coast period, during which we will have nothing to report. The 5th burn is scheduled to start around 12:12 AM EDT, or 04:12 GMT. Separation of the Nimiq 5 spacecraft is scheduled to follow the 5th burn completion by about 15 minutes.
 
Continuing on schedule:

We have confirmed that the Breeze M upper stage has successfully completed its 3rd & 4th burns, as well as jettisoning its additional propellant tank. The vehicle is now in a 5-hour coast period, during which we will have nothing to report. The 5th burn is scheduled to start around 12:12 AM EDT, or 04:12 GMT. Separation of the Nimiq 5 spacecraft is scheduled to follow the 5th burn completion by about 15 minutes.

45 minutes more until the start of the 5th burn. I'm glad to be on the west coast so I can watch. I hope for a good, solid stage burn and separation.
 
:up Nimiq 5 Mission Success!

Posted by ILS Communications Team, 12:37 a.m. EDT on 17 September 2009

We have had a successful mission with the Proton M Breeze M rocket, carrying the Nimiq 5 satellite built by Space Systems Loral for Telesat. We have had confirmation that the satellite separated from the vehicle on schedule at 12:34 AM EDT, or 04:34 GMT, 9 hours and 15 minutes after liftoff.

Everything occurred as planned with ignition, shutdown and separation of the Proton’s first three stages. Then the Breeze M upper stage with the satellite continued the mission, igniting five times, and then releasing the satellite into transfer orbit.
 
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