Kevin Fetter said the following on stardate 9/30/2005 19:12: > Directv 5 that was parked at 72.7 degrees West is drifting. It currently at 88 degrees West. > > It appears they turned if off, and letting it drift. > > Kevin Supposedly it is on it's way to 109.8 W to replaced an ill satellite (DirecTV 6). DirecTV 1 is supposed to be at it's old location. ORDER AND AUTHORIZATION Adopted: July 14, 2005 Released: July 14, 2005 By the Deputy Chief, Satellite Division, International Bureau: INTRODUCTION 1.With this Order, we grant the request of DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC (DIRECTV) for special temporary authority, for a period not to exceed 180 days from the release of this Order, to relocate its DIRECTV 1 satellite from its current position at the 101.125º W.L. orbital location to the 72.5º W.L. orbital location,1 and to conduct Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) functions for the satellite until the time it reaches its new location, subject to certain conditions. With this Order, we also grant DIRECTV’s request for modification of its blanket authority to communicate with 1,000,000 receive-only earth stations, which DIRECTV uses to provide “local-into-local”2 signals to U.S. consumers, which will now communicate with the DIRECTV 1 satellite. The DIRECTV 1 satellite will operate at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location under a Canadian space station authorization 1.issued to Telesat Canada (Telesat) by Industry Canada. Because the United States authorization for DIRECTV 1 will be terminated when it arrives at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location, we also dismiss, as moot, several pending applications relating to that space station. Customer traffic will be handed off from DIRECTV 5 to DIRECTV 1 while the satellites are briefly co-located at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location. Once the hand-off is completed, DIRECTV proposes to use the DIRECTV 5 satellite to replace a failing satellite at another orbital location. We grant DIRECTV’s request for special temporary authority to relocate the DIRECTV 5 satellite to the 109.8º W.L. orbital location of the failing satellite (nominally, the 110º W.L. orbital location) after the hand-off, and to conduct TT&C operations during that drift. Grant of these applications will permit DIRECTV to commence a series of satellite fleet moves needed to maintain continuity of service to DIRECTV customers at several locations, necessitated by the deteriorating condition of another satellite in the DIRECTV fleet. BACKGROUND 1.The DIRECTV 5 satellite currently operates at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location pursuant to an agreement between DIRECTV and Telesat, and under authorization issued by Industry Canada to Telesat.1 The proposed relocation of the DIRECTV 1 satellite to the 72.5º W.L. orbital location is based upon a revision to an agreement between DIRECTV and Telesat. The revised agreement will make the DIRECTV 5 satellite available for use at another, U.S.-licensed orbital location. DIRECTV has agreed to move the DIRECTV 1 satellite to the 72.5° W.L. orbital location, subject to necessary governmental approvals in the United States and in Canada. The agreement provides DIRECTV with an exclusive right to use all of the capacity on the DIRECTV 1 satellite at the 72.5° W.L. orbital location until at least September 30, 2008, unless DIRECTV launches two of three specific additional satellites before that date. Under the agreement, DIRECTV may, under certain circumstances, move the DIRECTV 1 satellite to one of its U.S.-licensed orbital locations,2 upon five days’ notice to Telesat, in the event that DIRECTV 1 is needed to replace some or all of the capacity of certain other DIRECTV satellites should any of those satellites fail in orbit. 2.The agreement states that, once DIRECTV 1 is at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location, it will be operated under Telesat’s direction and control. DIRECTV will conduct TT&C for DIRECTV 1, on Telesat’s behalf, from a U.S.-licensed earth station, until Telesat has developed and installed the necessary facilities in Canada to perform such functions. 3.On April 27, 2005, DIRECTV filed with the Commission a copy of its agreement with Telesat, and requested that the agreement be withheld from public inspection pursuant to Sections 0.457 and 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 3 On the same date, DIRECTV also filed a request for special temporary authority (STA) to relocate the DIRECTV 1 satellite, and a request for modification of its existing blanket earth station authorization.4 The Satellite Division of the International Bureau (Division) issued a Public Notice on April 29, 2005 accepting DIRECTV’s STA request for filing.1 The Division issued a public notice on May 25, 2005 accepting the DIRECTV blanket earth station request for filing.2 No comments were filed in response to either of these filings. 1.On May 17, 2005, DIRECTV filed an application for an STA to relocate the DIRECTV 5 satellite, after its customer traffic at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location is transferred to the DIRECTV 1 satellite.3 On May 20, the Division issued a public notice accepting the STA request for filing.4 DIRECTV seeks authority to relocate the DIRECTV 5 satellite to the 109.8º W.L. orbital location, at which location it has applied to provide Direct Broadcast Service (DBS) on three licensed channels.5 No comments were filed in response to this request. DISCUSSION STA to Relocate DIRECTV 1 1.The need to replace DIRECTV 5 with DIRECTV 1 results from the deteriorating condition of a third satellite, DIRECTV 6, at the 109.8º W.L. orbital location, which has experienced repeated solar array failures, as recently as March of this year. In order to ensure that the three DBS channels on that satellite remain fully operational, DIRECTV has turned off payload heaters on board the satellite. DIRECTV reports that the degradation of operations stemming from the solar array failures is expected to continue as more arrays fail.1 It is also likely that the solar array failures will be aggravated by the approaching annual solar eclipses occurring around the autumnal equinox. 2.DIRECTV explains that the DIRECTV 5 and DIRECTV 6 satellites were designed with the same operational capabilities, including an antenna design optimized for service from the nominal 110º W.L. orbital location at which DIRECTV 6 is now providing service. Therefore, DIRECTV 5 is well-suited to replace DIRECTV 6 at the 110º W.L. orbital location, while the DIRECTV 1 satellite, which does not share that antenna design, is not as well-suited for service at that location.2 At the same time, DIRECTV 1 is capable of providing the local-into-local services currently provided by DIRECTV 5 at the 72.5º W.L. orbital location.3 3.Upon review, we find that DIRECTV has shown a grant of this request would serve the public interest. Specifically, this STA will enable DIRECTV to maintain continuity of DBS service from the 109.8º W.L. and 72.5º W.L. orbital locations, by authorizing the first in a series of satellite moves that will allow the replacement of a deteriorating DIRECTV 6 satellite. More at http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2005/db0722/DA-05-1890A1.doc -- David Bate Ontario, Canada www.scannerdesk.com PGP/GPG - 77F8799F - F0BF 54AF 5D30 BD1D 1B29 8E26 CD18 7C85 77F8 799F ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 30 2005 - 19:42:59 EDT