Intelsat 31 (IS-31, DLA-2, ISDLA 2)

Intelsat

Spacecraft nº:

Intelsat spacecraft nº:

Launch data:

Designation	41581 / 16035A
Launch date	09 June 2016 - 07:10 UTC
Launch site	Baikonur, LC-81/24
Launch vehicle	Proton-M Briz-M
Mission	Commerc.: Communication
Geostationary orbit:
Perigee / Apogee	35580 x 35860 km
Eccentricity	3,33E-03
Inclination	0.01 °
Period	1435.1 min

Artist’s concept of the Intelsat 31/DLA-2 satellite. Credit: Space Systems/Loral

Spacecraft data:

Prime manufacturer	Space Systems/Loral (SS/L)
Platform	SSL-1300
Operator	Intelsat for DirecTV Latin America
Mass at launch	6450 kg
Dry Mass	kg
Basic shape
Dimension (m)
Equipment	10 C- and 72 Ku-band transponders DirecTV Latin America 2 (DLA-2) Ku-band payload.
Solar array	2 deployable solar arrays (20 kW)
Stabilization
Propulsion	R-4D-11
DC power
Design lifetime	20 yrs

Location:

Date	Position	Remarks
Dec 2016	95° W

Mission details:

Launch was planned for April 23, 2016, delayed to June 9, 2016.
Six RD-276 first stage main engines ignited with a rush of orange exhaust at 0710 GMT (3:10 a.m. EDT) on June 9, 2016 propelling the 191-foot-tall (58-meter) Proton launcher into an overcast afternoon sky at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Proton second stage suffered an early shutdown of one of its 4 engines, leaving the vehicle 28m/s slow at stage 3 separation.
The first of five engine firings by the Proton´s Breeze M upper stage ran more than 30 seconds longer than expected, apparently to overcome a velocity shortfall caused by the second stage problem.
It took more than 15 hours for the Breeze M upper stage to inject the spacecraft into a ´supersynchronous´ transfer orbit, with five burns of the long-lived space tug planned to place the satellite on a trajectory with a high point up to 40,400 miles (65,000 kilometers) above Earth.
Officials with International Launch Services, declared the flight a success after telemetry radioed from the Breeze M upper stage confirmed the deployment of the Intelsat 31/DLA-2 satellite around 2241 GMT (6:41 p.m. EDT), shortly after the main engine´s fifth firing.
The satellite will enter service within a couple of months, and the extra lifting accomplished by the Proton/Breeze M launcher Thursday should extend the mission´s lifetime from 15 years to at least 20 years.
The newest member of Intelsat´s fleet joins a nearly identical satellite named Intelsat 30/DLA-1 launched on an Ariane 5 mission in 2014.

External links:

Satellite tracking: Real time satellite tracking

Ref.: #7(JR727), #12, #14, #226 - update: 23.04.17

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