Tag Archive for 'Sea Launch'

A Busy Week for Launches in India, Russia and China

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Doug
on April 28, 2008
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An Indian PSLV rocket launched 10 - count ‘em 10 - satellites into orbit on Monday. The cargo included the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite, an Indian mini-sat, and eight foreign nano-sats. The Times of India has details.

Meanwhile, the folks at Sea Launch are celebrating their first successful takeoff from terra firma. A Land Launch Zenit-3SLB blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday carrying an Israeli communications satellite. The company is a joint venture between Sea Launch and Russia’s Space International Services. More details here.

In other news, the ever reliable Soyuz rocket orbited the second demonstration satellite for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system on Sunday. And a Chinese Long March rocket launched a data relay satellite on Friday that will support China’s human spaceflight program.

Sea Launch Delivers DIRECT 11 Satellite to Orbit

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Doug
on March 20, 2008
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SEA LAUNCH PRESS RELEASE

Sea Launch Company successfully delivered the DIRECTV 11 broadcast satellite to orbit from its ocean-based equatorial platform. A Zenit-3SL rocket lifted off at 3:48 pm PDT (22:48 GMT) from the Odyssey Launch Platform. All systems performed nominally throughout the flight. The Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 5,923 kg (13,058 lb) DIRECTV 11 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

“I congratulate DIRECTV on today’s successful launch,” said Rob Peckham, president and general manager of Sea Launch. “This is our fourth successful launch for DIRECTV and we’re proud to be a part of your achievements. We look forward to future opportunities to contribute to your continued success. This is the 16th Boeing-built spacecraft we’ve launched and, as always, it’s a pleasure working with the Boeing satellite team.

DIRECTV 11 is one of three recent Boeing 702-model spacecraft built for DIRECTV and is among the largest and most powerful Ka-band satellites built to date. The on-board technology of this direct-to-home satellite will enable DIRECTV to continue to expand its industry-leading lineup of quality high-definition television (HDTV) programming.

DIRECTV 11, combined with the DIRECTV 10 satellite already in orbit, will provide DIRECTV with the capacity for 150 national HD channels and will be capable of supporting spot beams carrying 1,500 local HD channels.

Sea Launch postpones Zenit launch until at least Wednesday

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Doug
on March 17, 2008
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Sea Launch has postponed launch of a Zenit rocket carrying a DirecTV satellite for at least a day due to an unspecified problem detected during the pre-launch operations. On its website, the company says the next launch window will open no earlier than Wednesday, March 19.