SPACEWAY-1

Spaceway-1

Spaceway-1

Direct broadcast satellite

Spaceway-1 [2] was a part of AT&T's constellation of direct broadcast satellites.

Quick Facts Mission type, Operator ...

The satellite was launched via a Zenit-3SL rocket from Sea Launch's Odyssey equatorial ocean platform on 26 April 2005.

Its money_time position was in geosynchronous orbit 35,800 kilometres (22,200 mi) above the equator at 102.8° West longitude. Spaceway-1 was a Boeing 702-model satellite with a 12-year operational life expectancy.

It provided high-definition television to DirecTV customers with its Ka-band communications payload. DirecTV did not make use of the broadband capabilities on Spaceway-1 even though it was originally built by Boeing for this purpose.

History

Spaceway-1 was the heaviest commercial communications satellite 6080 kg ever put into orbit[3] until iPSTAR-1 (6775 kg) was launched by Arianespace on 11 August 2005.

T10 was co-located with Spaceway-1 in order to use the 500 MHz of unused spectrum for HDTV broadcasting. This spectrum was originally intended for the broadband internet capabilities of the two Spaceway satellites which were disabled by Hughes Network Systems at the request of DirecTV.

Retirement

During its last years, Spaceway-1 mainly served as a backup satellite. In December 2019, the satellite suffered significant and irreversible thermal damage to its battery, forcing it to rely only on power generated from its solar arrays and prompting AT&T to request the spacecraft be decommissioned before February 25, 2020, to prevent the risk of the spacecraft exploding.[4] The satellite was moved into a graveyard orbit above the geostationary orbit and was announced as decommissioned on February 14, 2020.[5]

References

  1. [1]
    Henry, Caleb (14 February 2020). "DirecTV's defunct Spaceway-1 reaches high graveyard orbit in one piece". SpaceNews. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  2. [2]
    "DIRECTV's Spaceway F1 Satellite Launches New Era in High-Definition Programming; Next Generation Satellite Will Initiate Historic Expansion of DIRECTV". DirecTV. SpaceRef. 26 April 2005. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  3. [3]
    "Sea Launch Successfully Delivers Spaceway to Orbit - Heaviest Commercial Satellite Launched to Date". Boeing. 26 April 2005. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  4. [4]
    Henry, Caleb (22 January 2020). "DirecTV fears explosion risk from satellite with damaged battery". SpaceNews. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  5. [5]
    Henry, Caleb (14 February 2020). "DirecTV's defunct Spaceway-1 reaches high graveyard orbit in one piece". SpaceNews. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
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