Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Countdown Begins XM-4 Launch
October 24, 2006
Sea Launch Begins Countdown for XM-4 Launch
LONG BEACH, Calif., Oct 24, 2006 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --
The Sea Launch team has initiated a 72-hour countdown in preparation for the launch of the XM-4 broadcast satellite on October 26. Liftoff is planned at the opening of a 58-minute launch window at 4:49 pm Pacific Daylight Time (23:49 GMT).
With launch site operations underway at 154 degrees West Longitude on the Equator, the Sea Launch Commander is now stationed alongside the Odyssey, periodically connected by a "link bridge" during launch preparations. Tomorrow, a day before launch, the team will erect the Zenit-3SL rocket onto the launch pad. Final tests on the launch system and the spacecraft will lead up to the terminal count for liftoff.
The launch platform will be evacuated, with all personnel positioned on the ship, three miles uprange from the platform, during final preparations for liftoff. At launch, the rocket will lift the 5,193 kg (11,448 lbs.) XM-4 satellite to an optimized geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), on its way to a final orbital position of 115 degrees West Longitude.
Built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center, the Boeing 702 spacecraft carries a high-power S-band Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) payload provided by Alcatel Alenia Space. Like the three XM satellites currently in orbit, XM-4 will broadcast XM's radio programming to over 7 million subscribers in cars, homes and portable radios throughout the continental United States and Canada...read more:
here 10/24/2006 01:34:00 PM
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