Several satellite operators submitted their annual status reports...
Several satellite operators submitted their annual status reports to the FCC: (1) DirecTV said Boeing Satellite Systems has made “significant progress” on the Spaceway 1 and 2 birds destined for 103 degrees W and 99 degrees W. The birds…
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should be complete early next year. DirecTV said it expects to meet its June 25, 2005 launch and operation milestone for the birds. DirecTV 8 is also being completed by Space Systems/Loral, DirecTV said. The hybrid DBS/Ka-band satellite will be used for local-into-local and is scheduled for launch ahead of the June 25, 2005, milestone. (2) PanAmSat said only 3 of its satellites had transponders that experienced outages longer than 30 min. A transponder on Galaxy 3R experienced a spontaneous shut-off for 72 min. A spontaneous shut-off of PAS 8 lasted 45 min. PAS 24 also experienced a spontaneous shut-off for 2 hours 44 min. on one transponder. Another transponder on the bird was unavailable 38 min. owing to a reconfiguration. PanAmSat said it has 3 satellites under construction and 2 authorized satellites that haven’t started construction. (3) Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) said the only outages on its nongeostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) mobile satellite service (MSS) system longer than 30 minutes result from deteriorating battery performance. VITASat 1R has had battery performance issues since Dec. 2000 and is currently operated only during the day. Battery power in VITASat 2 began deteriorating in July 2002, and the company hasn’t used the satellite since Jan. 2003. (4) A report from Intelsat confirmed only that its 10-02 satellite was launched in June. The company redacted the rest of the report because it said it contained “commercially sensitive information that would not normally be available to the public.”