Science DISH Network loses new satellite via Russian Proton rocket | DISH Network loses new satellite via Russian Proton rocket |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Tuesday, 18 March 2008 | |
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The AMC-14 satellite, specifically, would have provided direct-to-home television programming for DISH Network (owned by EchoStar Corporation) for its North American customers. The 9,000-pound-plus AMC-14 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, is owned by New Jersey-based SES Americom, a private satellite services company that is one of three major parts of Luxembourg-based SES S.A.
The satellite was successfully launched at 5:18 local time on Saturday, March 15, 2008 (23:18:55 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Friday, March 14, 2008) aboard an expendable Proton-M/Briz-M launch vehicle, which is used for both commercial and government purposes.
The Proton-M/Briz-M launch system is built at the Khrunichev plant in Moscow, Russia. The satellite should have been placed in a final geostationary orbit at 61.5 degrees west longitude. However, the Breeze-M single engine, powered with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, quit about two minutes, thirteen seconds earlier than scheduled on a 34-minute burn. Instead of being in an average 22,233-mile (35,780-kilometer) geostationary orbit, it is now in an orbit that is about 5,000 miles below, at about 17,400 miles (28,000 kilometers). Such an orbit is called a medium Earth-orbit (MEO). Because of the failure of the Breeze-M upper stage rocket the AMC-14 satellite is now in an unusable orbit. However, some options are available to correct the orbital problem. Pleases read on.
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