Echostar 5

Also known as Sky 1

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General

Designation	25913 / 99050A
Launch date	23 Sep 1999
Country of origin	United States
Mission	Telecommunications
Geostationary orbit	see below
Launch vehicle	Atlas 2AS #121

Echostar 5 & 6 were originally known as Sky 1 & 2 or MCI 1 & 2. They were intended to start DBS programming at 110°W for the MCI-News corp. venture called American Sky Broadcasting (ASkyB). They got the slot with a $682.6 million bid. The program including satellites and launch delivered in orbit and uplink facilities was valued between $400 and $500. Each satellite was insured for $225 million.

In early 1999 the satellites (and launch, and uplink center, and license for construction and distribution of 500000 receivers) and the licence for 110°W was sold to Echostar. This also included 3 years of Fox rebroadcast. Echostar payed with approx 37% of its equity (this represents 8.5% of voting power). Contract worth $1.25 billion.

3 TWTA had been replaced by spares as of Sep 2001. One of the 3 momentum wheels was lost in Jul 2001. The satellite is victim of solar arrays degradation. As of 31 dec 2002; 3 solar array strings have been lost (out of 96, 92 are required for full power).

As of Jun 2003, 4 solar panels have failed.

In March 2005, the satellite was leased to Ciel and moved to 129°W to operate from there. FCC approved in Jun 2005.

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Location

Begin	End	Position
L: 23 Sep 1999	Mar 2003	110°W
Mar 2003	Jul 2005	119°W
Jul 2005	Apr 2009	129°W
May 2009	Jul 2009	148°W

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End of life

Out of service	Jul 2009
Cause	moved to junk orbit

sat-index articles

Technical data

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Lyngsat transponder loading

Specifications
Ku-band
Ku-band DBS US frequency chart

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