spacetoday.net: Atlas 2 launches Japanese communications satellite

Posted: Fri, Apr 16, 2004, 10:26 AM ET (1426 GMT)
Atlas 2AS launch of Superbird 6 (ILS)

An Atlas 2AS successfully launched a Japanese communications satellite Thursday night. The Atlas 2AA lifted off from pad 36A at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8:45 pm, and placed its payload, the Superbird 6 satellite, into a geosynchronous transfer orbit 30 minutes later. The vehicle put the spacecraft into a "supersynchronous" transfer orbit, with an apogee of over 120,000 kilometers, to minimize the use of spacecraft propellant to put the spacecraft into its final geosynchronous orbit. The 3,100-kg spacecraft, a Boeing 601 model, has 23 Ku-band and 4 Ka-band transponders to provide video and data services over much of the Asia-Pacific region from an orbital slot at 158 degrees east. The launch was the 71st consecutive successful launch for the Atlas family of vehicles, dating back to 1993. The launch is one of the last for the Atlas 2AS: two more flights of the vehicle are scheduled over the next two months before the rocket is retired.