Nov 15 1980
From The Space Library
NASA launched SBS-A, the SBS spacecraft, from ESMC on a Delta at 5:49 p.m. EST into a transfer orbit. At 5:30 p.m. EST November 17, the apogee motor fired it as Sbs 1 into a circular geosynchronous orbit over 176°W. The final station would be over the equator at 106°W, south of Santa Fe, N. M. , for coverage of the continental United States.
Sbs 1, first of a new satellite series built by Hughes Aircraft, was a spin stabilized 1,212-pound (550-kilogram) craft 216 centimeters (7 feet) in diameter, 282 centimeters (9 feet, 3 inches) high when stowed for launch. In geosynchronous orbit, extension of its telescoping solar-panel cylinder and communications antenna would make its height 660 centimeters (21 feet, 8 inches). Sbs 1 would also be the first U.S. domestic communications satellite to use the less congested 12- to 14-GHz (K-band) high frequencies. Its high speed all-digital 10-transponder system could relay up to 480 million bits per second, equal to more than 10 million words. It would begin early in 1981 to provide integrated all-digital interference-free transmission of telephone, computer, electronic mail, and videoconferencing to SBS business and industrial clients.
This launch was also the first use of a new McDonnell Douglas solid-fuel payload-assist module (PAM) as part of the SBS-A payload, to increase Delta capability on launches to geosynchronous orbit by 20% over that of the usual Delta third stage. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Nov 19/80; NASA Release 80-167)
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