SPACEWAY-1

SPACEWAY-1 is part of DirecTV’s constellation of direct broadcast satellites. The satellite was launched via a Zenit 3SL rocket from Sea Launch’s "Odyssey" equatorial platform on 26 April 2005. Its operational position is in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above the equator at 102.8 degrees west longitude. SPACEWAY-1 is a Boeing 702-model satellite with a 12-year life expectancy. It is expected to provide high definition television to DirecTV customers with its K_a-band communications payload. DirecTV is not expected to make use of the broadband capabilities on SPACEWAY-1 even though it was originally built by Boeing for this purpose.

SPACEWAY-1 was the heaviest commercial communications satellite (13,400-lb or 6,080-kg) ever put into orbit, until iPSTAR-1 (6,775 kg) was launched by Arianespace on August 11, 2005.

The identically built satellite called SPACEWAY-2 was launched on 16 November 2005 and is expected to also support high definition television to DirecTV customers.

The third satellite in the series called SPACEWAY-3 was launched on 14 August 2007. This satellite is expected to be used by Hughes Network Systems as part of its business and consumer broadband satellite service currently called HughesNet.

The SPACEWAY system was originally envisioned as a global K_a-band communications system by the company then known as Hughes Aircraft and subsequently renamed as Hughes Electronics. When the project to build the system was taken over by Hughes Network Systems, a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, it was transformed into a phased deployment initially only launching a North American satellite system. This is in comparison to other more ambitious systems such as Teledesic and Astrolink which retained their full global nature and which subsequently failed to complete their systems. Hughes Network Systems working with Hughes Electronics subsidiary Hughes Space and Communications (and subsequently sold to Boeing and called Boeing Satellite Systems) completed and built the North American SPACEWAY system meant to provide broadband capabilities of up to 512 kbit/s, 2 Mbit/s, and 16 Mbit/s uplink data communication rates with fixed K_a-band satellite terminal antennas sized as small as 66 cm. The broadband SPACEWAY system was standardized by Telecommunications Industry Association and European Telecommunications Standards Institute as the Regenerative Satellite Mesh - A Air Interface.

After News Corp purchased a controlling interest in Hughes Electronics (which was renamed to DirecTV Group), the company sold off its controlling interest in Hughes Network Systems but retained SPACEWAY-1 and SPACEWAY-2 for use in the DirecTV satellite television subsidiary of Hughes Electronics. Boeing retrofitted the first two satellites for bent-pipe K_a-band communications for use in high definition television and disabled the regenerative on-board processing of the original system that was to be used for broadband satellite communications.

DirecTV-10 was launched on July 7, 2007. DirecTV-11 was launched on March 19, 2008. Together, they provide high definition television for DirecTV. Instead of the regenerative on-board processing and downlink phased arrays of the SPACEWAY series of satellites, they utilize bent-pipe K_a-band and antennas with spotbeams.

DirecTV-10 and DirecTV-11 are to be co-located with SPACEWAY-1 and SPACEWAY-2 satellites, respectively, in order to use the 500 MHz of unused spectrum for HDTV broadcasting. This spectrum was originally intended for the broadband internet capabilities of the two SPACEWAY satellites which were disabled by Hughes at the request of DirecTV.

ee also

*HughesNet
*SPACEWAY
*DirecTV
*SPACEWAY-2
* [http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/702/spaceway/spaceway.html Boeing's Original Spaceway Specification and Picture]

External links

* [http://www.spacewaydsl.com/What_is_Spaceway/ What is Spaceway-1?]