Launch Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan Launch Pad 39
Launch Customer: DIRECTV, El Segundo, California
Satellite Manufacturer: Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, El Segundo, California
Launch Vehicle Manufacturer: Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, Moscow
Launch Services Provider: International Launch Services, Reston, Va.
Satellite Use: The DIRECTV 12 next-generation satellite will play an important role in extending DIRECTV's content leadership position in the pay TV industry. When it becomes operational in the first half of next year, it will expand DIRECTV's HD capacity by 50 percent to more than 200 national channels. The powerful 131-transponder payload integrates 32 active and 12 spare TWTAs (Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers) at Ka-band for national service and 55 active and 15 spare TWTAs for spot beams. The payload is powered by a gallium arsenide solar array that spans more than 48 meters. DIRECTV 12 will receive and transmit programming throughout the United States with two large Ka-band reflectors, each measuring 2.8 meters in diameter and nine other Ka-band reflectors.
Satellite Statistics: -- 70 Ka-Band transponders __Orbital location: 102.8 West longitudes __Anticipated service life: 15 years
Mission Profile: The Proton M launch vehicle, utilizing a 5-burn Breeze M mission design, will lift off from Pad 39 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, with the DIRECTV 12 satellite on board. The first three stages of the Proton will use a standard ascent profile to place the Ascent Unit (payload fairing, Breeze M upper stage and the DIRECTV12 satellite) into a sub-orbital trajectory. From this point in the mission, the Breeze M will perform planned mission maneuvers to advance the Orbital Unit first to a circular parking orbit, then to an intermediate orbit, followed by a transfer orbit, and finally to a geo-transfer orbit. Separation of the DIRECTV 12 satellite is scheduled to occur approximately 9 hours, 10 minutes after liftoff.
Target Orbit at Separation: Apogee: 35,786 km (22,236 miles) Perigee: 5,120 km (3,181 miles) Inclination: 20.7 degrees
I look back to what happened to AM radio when FM came in and to FM radio when TV came in. I am therefore hopeful that satellite TV on KU band using small dishes will become more freely available at a much cheaper price.
If you look for C-Band, now you can get that with a dish size as small as 30' and can get many channels with a 4' dish which can be used easily with a as lower cost of 200$ and under, include motor and LNB.
My concern was mainly in connection with the aesthetic looks of a house endowed with a large 4-6 feet dish. It looks positively ugly, in spite of the entertainment derived from it.