Intelsat success for DirecTV
October 17, 2014
By Chris Forrester
A giant Ariane rocket successfully lifted two satellites into orbit, and was the 62nd consecutive success for the Ariane system (and the 220th since Ariane rockets were first introduced in 1979). Launch occurred at 5.43pm EDT on October 16th.
The heavier satellite was Intelsat-30, built by Space Systems/Loral, and which will host the Ku-band –based DLA-1 mission for DirecTV. It will be co-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C craft at 95 degrees West and beam services into Latin America for DirecTV. Intelsat-30 also carries a C-band payload also serving Latin America.
There is speculation, unconfirmed by DirecTV, that the satellite could be used to supply 4K services into DirecTV’s subscribers in South America.
The smaller satellite was Argentina’s ARSAT-1, which will supply TV, telephony and data services over the Argentina, Uruguay and Chile regions of South America, including the South Polar region.