The Odyssey Launch Platform and the Sea Launch Commander have departed Sea Launch Home Port for the equatorial Pacific, in preparation for the launch of the DIRECTV 11 broadcast satellite, planned for Monday, March 17. Liftoff is expected at the opening of a 58-minute launch window, at 3:49 pm Pacific Daylight Time (22:49 GMT).
Upon arrival at the launch site at 154 degrees West Longitude, the team will ballast the platform to launch depth and initiate a 72-hour countdown. During this period...
Does anybody have any details as to what this new satellite will provide to subscribers? In particular, what new HD channels will be carried by this sat, and when should we expect them to come online? A week? A month? End of '08? Sometime in the distant future?
I'm no expert on satellite delivery ... but as I understand it, a lot of it depends on how accurate they are with placing the satellite in the correct position. If not deployed precisely, it will take some time to move the satellite to final orbital location. At that point, there are a battery of tests and a "burn-in" period, etc that they go through before starting to deliver programming to subscribers.
I will check with DirecTV, but as I recall this satellite (and DirecTV 12 launching later) are almost entirely dedicated to local HD channel delivery. You may see a dozen or so more nationals out of it, but there's not a whole lot left to carry that they don't already.
If memory serves, it was a few months after they launched their last satellite before they began adding programming for it. I'd expect some announcements in Q3.
I'm not a DirecTV subscriber. (actually, I have Dish Network), and I watched Charlie and his buddy on Monday and from what they said it probably will be about 2-3 months until that new satellite will be up and running. Dish is launching on Friday, and from the way it sounds it takes about 8-10 weeks before the new programming is available.
"DIRECTV 11, with a mass of a 5923 kg (13,058 lb), is one of three recent Boeing 702-model spacecraft built for DIRECTV and is among the largest and most powerful Ka-band satellites built to date. The on-board technology of this direct-to-home satellite will enable DIRECTV to continue to expand its industry-leading lineup of quality high-definition television (HDTV) programming. DIRECTV 11, combined with the DIRECTV 10 satellite already in orbit, will provide DIRECTV with the capacity for 150 national HD channels and will be capable of supporting spot beams carrying 1,500 local HD channels. "
My interpretations: What this means is while there are 150 channels (via 32 amplifiers) of wide broadcast channels (approximately nationwide), the satellite has the capability of beaming 1500 channels via electronically steerable antenna (via 55 amplifiers) that can hit multiple points virtually at the same time. I would guess they may be more compressed than the main channels. The 1500 channels are spread out a few (# ?) each to many cities.
They are also building a #12 satellite identical to 10 and 11 as an on ground spare.
If you want to watch the launch it is being webcast starting at 3:30 PDT (launch about 3:48 PDT) via:
