Dec 6 1980
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(New page: NASA launched INTELSAT 5A F2, first of a new communications satellite series, from ESMC at Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 6:31 p.m. EST on an Atlas Centaur, into a transfer orbit wi...)
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NASA launched INTELSAT 5A F2, first of a new communications satellite series, from ESMC at Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 6:31 p.m. EST on an Atlas Centaur, into a transfer orbit with 35,950-kilometer apogee, 166.8-kilometer perigee, and 23.75° inclination. ComSatCorp fired the kick motor December 8 to put the craft into near-geosynchronous orbit at 15°E for tests. By mid-1981 the communications satellite would be on station at 338.5°E. (NASA MOR 0-491-203-80-01 [postlaunch] Dec 29/80)
NASA issued a press kit describing the spacecraft, which weighed 1,928 kilograms (4,250 pounds) at launch. Built by Ford Aerospace using system components developed by firms in France, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, and Italy, it had a capacity of 12,000 voice circuits and 2 television channels, almost double the capability of earlier INTELSATs. Cost of the launch was about $76.6 million, including $34 million for the spacecraft and $42 million for the Atlas Centaur and launch services. INTELSAT, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., would reimburse NASA for costs of the vehicle and launch services, under an agreement signed in May. (NASA Release 80-179)
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