{"id":16305,"date":"2015-05-26T23:27:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T15:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ariane-5-ready-to-pull-double-duty-for-directv\/"},"modified":"2015-05-26T23:27:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T15:27:55","slug":"ariane-5-ready-to-pull-double-duty-for-directv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ariane-5-ready-to-pull-double-duty-for-directv\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariane 5 ready to pull double duty for DirecTV"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Ariane 5 rocket loaded with DirecTV and Sky Mexico 1 rolled to the launch pad in French Guiana on Tuesday. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two satellites equipped to broadcast television programming to millions of homes across the United States and Latin America are braced for launch from French Guiana on Wednesday aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

Loaded with the DirecTV 15 and Sky Mexico 1 satellites, the 179-foot-tall Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to the ELA-3 launch pad Tuesday at the European-run Guiana Space Center, arriving at the coastal launch facility around midday for final preflight preparations.<\/p>\n

Ground crews planned to configure the rocket for the final launch countdown by connecting the Ariane 5 to propellant and electrical systems.<\/p>\n

Final preparations will begin early Wednesday, when the all-day countdown kicks off with activation of the Ariane 5\u2019s computers, testing of the rocket\u2019s electrical systems, and filling of the launcher\u2019s two stages with super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.<\/p>\n

The launch team will hand over control of the countdown to a computer-run sequence seven minutes prior to launch.<\/p>\n

The Ariane 5\u2019s Vulcain 2 main engine will fire at 2116 GMT (5:16 p.m. EDT; 6:16 p.m. local time). Seven seconds later, the launcher\u2019s twin solid rocket boosters will ignite with a burst of fiery exhaust to send the Ariane 5 into the sky.<\/p>\n

The strap-on rocket motors will jettison about two minutes later, and the Vulcain 2 core engine will burn for approximately nine minutes before yielding to a hydrogen-fueled HM7B upper stage engine to propel the mission\u2019s payloads to a speed of more than 9.3 kilometers per second, or nearly 21,000 mph.<\/p>\n

It will take nearly 38 minutes for the rocket to release its two satellite passengers into geostationary transfer orbit, an egg-shaped loop around Earth stretching up to 35,786 kilometers \u2014 22,236 miles \u2014 in altitude.<\/p>\n

DirecTV 15 will beam ultra-clear television signals directly to millions of homes across the United States. With a launch weight of 6.2 metric tons, the craft will join DirecTV\u2019s satellite fleet serving more than 20 million subscribers across the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

DirecTV also has a stake in the Sky Mexico 1 satellite on Wednesday\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n

Sky Mexico is majority owned by Televisa, a Mexican media company, but DirecTV holds 41 percent ownership of the satellite broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Phil Goswitz, DirecTV\u2019s senior vice president of space, communications and video, said the company assessed the risk of placing two satellites on the same rocket. Insurance rates for the satellites did not change when the two payloads were paired together, bolstering confidence in the decision to launch DirecTV 15 and Sky Mexico 1 at the same time, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is more conservative than an underwriter who has an opportunity to raise rates,\u201d Goswitz said. \u201cThat is probably the greatest testament to Ariane\u2019s reliability and the lack of additional risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ariane 5 rocket, operated and marketed by Arianespace headquartered near Paris, has logged 64 consecutive successful launches since 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ariane manifest right now is very full,\u201d Goswitz said. \u201cOur satellites are very highly enabling of revenue for DirecTV, so we want to launch them. We don\u2019t want them sitting on the ground, so we really took the first available opportunity to pair up our satellites.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Technicians
Technicians attach the Sky Mexico 1 satellite on the lower position of the Ariane 5 rocket\u2019s dual-payload stack. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 P. Baudon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ariane 5 rocket typically launches with two large communications satellites at a time. Arianespace officials track the progress of each spacecraft\u2019s construction and assign them to launchers several months before liftoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try to get your ducks in a row, but the ducks are alive and they keep walking around,\u201d Goswitz said of the pitfalls of dual-payload planning.<\/p>\n

For DirecTV, it proved easier to put both its satellites on the same launch, according to Goswitz.<\/p>\n

Airbus Defense and Space completed the DirecTV 15 satellite two months ahead of schedule in late 2014. DirecTV 15 is based on the European satellite-builder\u2019s Eurostar E3000 spacecraft platform.<\/p>\n

The Sky Mexico 1 spacecraft, made by Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, was finished four months early, Goswitz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth companies did extraordinary jobs managing the risks and getting the satellites ready,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DirecTV 15 is the second satellite equipped to broadcast next-generation 4K Ultra HD television signals. The new craft is launching six months after DirecTV 14, which is finishing up testing of the technology required to transmit ultra-sharp TV channels and video programming.<\/p>\n

The Airbus-made spacecraft is packed with more than 150 high-power amplifiers, 28 Ku-band transponders and 25 transponders in Ka-band and the so-called \u201creverse band\u201d normally used to send signals from Earth into space.<\/p>\n

Regulators have approved use of the uplink spectrum to transmit revenue-earning programming from a satellite to the ground, opening up the untapped reverse band for commercial exploitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith DirecTV 14 and now DirecTV 15, we\u2019ve significantly expanded our pipe, and it will give us substantial capacity to lead in 4K linear services, especially linear sports, which we think will be spectacular,\u201d Goswitz said in an interview from the French Guiana launch site.<\/p>\n

DirecTV subscribers with Ultra HD televisions will see channels from DirecTV 15 with four times as many pixels as a 1080p high-definition signal.<\/p>\n

Goswitz said Hollywood movie studios are beginning to film in 4K Ultra HD, and DirecTV customers will initially see the ultra-sharp programming in video-on-demand options. DirecTV expects live sports broadcasts and cable channels to follow the lead of the studios in adopting 4K Ultra HD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going through the same kind of dynamic that we had with the rollout of high-definition services,\u201d Goswitz said. \u201cThere\u2019s additional investment, and everyone is going to have to step up to that investment. They\u2019re a little reluctant to do so at the start, and that\u2019s part of the process, but they are \u2014 starting with the studios \u2014 starting to announce the availability of 4K Ultra HD movies, as well as introducing high dynamic range. That\u2019s not only better resolution, but wider color space and higher dynamic range from dark to brightness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The DirecTV 15 satellite will ride in the upper position of the Ariane 5\u2019s dual-payload stack. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Video-on-demand in 4K Ultra HD is available to customers with an Ultra HD television and existing receivers, according to Goswitz. Subscribers will need an upgraded receiver to access live transmissions when they come online.<\/p>\n

After Wednesday\u2019s launch, DirecTV 15 will raise its altitude and circularize its orbit 22,300 miles over the equator, where it will hover at 102.8 degrees west longitude. The spacecraft\u2019s Ku-band instrumentation will offer backup capacity for DirecTV\u2019s existing services in case older satellites need to be replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essentially \u2014 by design \u2014 a very flexible satellite, but its primary mission will be national Ultra HD and additional high-definition services for our main coverage area,\u201d Goswitz said.<\/p>\n

Sky Mexico 1 will broadcast television channels across Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean from 78.8 degrees west longitude. It is Sky Mexico\u2019s first dedicated satellite, adding to capacity leased from an Intelsat spacecraft stationed over the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are effectively doubling the capability of the business by going from 24 to 48 (transponders),\u201d Goswitz said. \u201cWe\u2019re adding 24 additional transponders, which will allow for substantial growth. (Sky Mexico) will be able to significantly change their competitive position and greatly improve their offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ariane 5 rocket loaded with DirecTV and Sky Mexico 1 rolled to the launch pad in French Guiana on Tuesday. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin Two satellites equipped to broadcast television programming to millions of homes across the United States and Latin America are braced for launch from French […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,1540,498,2620,4050,1773,1867,2899],"class_list":["post-16305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-ariane-5","tag-arianespace","tag-directv","tag-directv-15","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-mexico","tag-orbital-atk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}