Superbird 6

Launch data: Designation  28218 / 04011A Launch date  16 Apr 2004 - 00:45 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-36A Launch vehicle  Atlas-2AS (AC-163) Mission  Telecommunication Earth orbit on 26 Apr: Perigee / Apogee  7905 / 119714 km Inclination  13,25° Period  3084,25 min Geosynchronous orbit on 10 July 2004: Perigee / Apogee  35782 x 35792 km Inclination  0.05° Period   min

Description:

• SUPERBIRD-6, slated for an orbital slot at 158.0 degrees East longitude, will provide business telecommunication services using a Japan Beam for Ku-Band and Ka-Band services along with a Steerable Spot Beam for additional Ka-Band services. The satellite has a payload of 23 active Ku-Band transponders and four Ka-Band transponders.
• The satellite carries a payload with 23 active Ku-band and four Ka-band transponders for high-data-rate communications that will provide television news gathering, distance learning, Internet access, VSAT and other services to customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region

Mission details:

• As its liquid engines and solid-propellant boosters flashed to life at 8:45 p.m. EDT (0045 GMT), mechanisms holding the half-million pound rocket let go to allow the vehicle to swiftly depart pad 36A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
• A half-hour after liftoff, the launcher deployed its cargo to cap the 71st consecutive successful Atlas mission dating to 1993.
• Superbird 6 will perform more than a half-dozen engine burns between Sunday and May 5 to arrive in a circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the equator and remove the orbital inclination.
• The craft will deploy its appendages and undergo testing through the end of May. Controllers expect to place the satellite into service from its operational location at 158 degrees East longitude in mid-June.
• Built by Boeing Satellite Systems, the craft will be renamed Superbird A2 once it begins a decade-plus lifetime.
• Superbird 6 was delivered by the Atlas-2AS launch vehicle to its predefined supersyncronous transfer orbit. But this orbit did not consider the moons gravity influence, which caused the perigee to drop. To rescue the satellite, most of its fuel was used up. Additionally the solar panels outer parts have reduced power, possibly due to the low perigee pass. The satellite can probably not enter service as planned in July 2004. One of two main fuel tanks on the spacecraft lost pressure on November 28. That anomaly will cause the spacecraft's lifetime to be significantly shortened.