EchoStar VI, the second in a series of four high-powered direct broadcast satellites (DBS) being built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) for EchoStar Communications Corporation, was successfully launched last Friday, July 14, at 1:21 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas II AS launch vehicle.
The satellite, to be delivered on-orbit to EchoStar, will be tested at 148 degrees West Longitude, then moved to 119 degrees West longitude, pending Federal Communications Commission approval.
The launch followed the successful launch of EchoStar V on September 22, 1999. EchoStar VIII and IX, also being built by SS/L, are to be launched in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
The power and range of EchoStar V and VI allow EchoStar¿s DISH Network customers to receive hundreds of television channels of programming. EchoStar¿s current fleet of six satellites has the capacity to offer 500 channels of content that include digital video and audio, local network programming, Interactive TV and high-speed data services, business television, and other niche services.
When EchoStar VIII and IX are launched and become operational, services for the more than four million DISH Network customers will expand substantially.
EchoStar VI has 32 transponders operating at 125 watts, switchable to 16 transponders operating at 250 watts. Total satellite power will be in autumnal equinox at 10,000 dc watts, making EchoStar VI the most powerful direct broadcast satellite ever manufactured. EchoStar VI is expected to provide more than 12 years of uninterrupted service.
The EchoStar spacecraft is based on SS/L's three-axis, body-stabilized 1300 bus, whose modular design is flight-proven and has an excellent record of reliable operation.
SS/L¿s 1300 buses are designed to achieve a long, useful orbital life, excellent stationkeeping, and orbital stability by using bipropellant propulsion and momentum-bias systems.
Their system of high-efficiency solar arrays and lightweight batteries provides uninterrupted electrical power. In all, SS/L satellites have amassed a total of some 800 years on orbit.
