XM Successfully Launches New Satellite

xm-launch.jpg

After a brief delay, Sea Launch successfully sent XM-4 into orbit yesterday as pictured above. There’s all sorts of technical details to peruse, such the satellite’s 15 year lifespan and 18 kilowatts of power, but my bottom line is: rocket launches are cool.

Sea Launch successfully completed the XM-4 Mission on October 30, 2006. A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket lifted off from the Odyssey Launch Platform at 3:49pm PST (23:49 GMT). All phases of the flight profile performed as expected. The mission ended with spacecraft separation from the Block DM upper stage, placing the XM-4 communications satellite into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. A ground station in Hartebeesthoek, South Africa, acquired the spacecraft signal shortly after spacecraft separation. All systems are operating nominally.

3 thoughts on “XM Successfully Launches New Satellite”

  1. They don’t mention that the reason for this launch is to replace satellites 1 & 2. Those have faulty solar panels which cut their lifetime from 15 years to 7 years. Once the the new satellites are in place, then 1&2 will get shut off and serve as backups.

  2. Thanks for the extra info! I did find it strange they weren’t touting any new capabilities in the press releases and I wondered what purpose this satellite would serve. (Silly me, I was hoping for video.)

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