Echostar 15 Moves to 119W

[nelson61]

Echostar 14 at 119w has both spot and conus coverage.
The Echostar 15 move can replace the conus coverage of E14.

No new bandwidth can be added.

 

[nelson61]

Echostar 15 has two essentially identical Conus beams.
This is the WTXR beam at 119W

 

[nelson61]

EchoStar 15 has departed 61.5W and is on the way to 119W

Presently ~50 km above geostationary, at ~64W and moving west at ~0.5 degrees per day.

This indicates arrival at 119W around the middle of August

 

[Derek K]

Moving from one orbital slot to another uses little fuel.

Don't they already have another satellite on order?

Depends on which direction. Not sure if its east to west or west to east, but one direction they can allow the satellite to drift burning less fuel.

 

[Jim5506]

Depends on which direction. Not sure if its east to west or west to east, but one direction they can allow the satellite to drift burning less fuel.

It's more a matter of moving slightly higher or slightly lower in its orbit. Higher drifts it west lower drifts it east, then you stop the drift.
Length of burn determines how fast the objective is achieved. Burns are relatively short spurts not continuous burns whether east or west.

 

[telstar_1]

I guess that would stand to reason- lower orbit (than geo) = movement faster than earth rotation whilst a higher orbit = movement slower than rotation. Plus you don't want a sat coming across other geosats on the trip