Monday, December 23, 2002

Galaxy 4

 1993-039A


Owned by Hughes Communications Inc., Galaxy 4H was a hybrid satellite, carrying both C and Ku band transponders. It was a three-axis stabilized HS-601 unlike the earlier Galaxy craft, and had a mass of 2700 kg. Galaxy 4H was intended for television distribution and private communications networks.

The satellite had a solar array span of 26.5m. Mass was 2988 kg at orbital injection, 1692 kg on station, and 1323 kg empty. The Ariane stage was not tracked and probably reentred on first orbit.

In May 1998 a chip in the on board control processor failed, sending the spacecraft spinning and putting 90 percent of the pagers in the USA out of action. PanAmSat deactivated the communications payload and put the satellite in safemode. The Ku-band customers were transferred to Galaxy III-R, while Galaxy VI was moved from 74W to 99W to backup the C-band capacity. An investigation suggested an electrical short in a tin-plated relay in the processor was responsible.


Galaxy IVH 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1993 Jun 25  0018:00  Launch by Ariane 42P 
 0021  L-33 Stage 2 TIG (T+3:30) 
 0022  Type 01 Fairing sep (T+4:35) 
 0023  L-33 Stage 2 sep (T+5:30) 
 0023  H-10+ TIG (T+5:43) 
 0036  H-10+ MECO (T+18:11) 
 0038  H10+ stage sep 
  Orbit insertion  200 x 27668 x 7.0 
 0040  H10+ sep burn, end of mission 
   486.84 293 x 27949 x 7.1 
1993 Jun 26  0000? PVA burn 1  548.33 232 x 31394 x 7.5 
1993 Jun 27  1200? PVA burn 2  633.46 218 x 35890 x 7.0 
1993 Jun 30  0030? AKM-1 burn at 12th apogee  1069.56 20627 x 35905 x 1.1  
1993 Jun 30    1073.95 20860 x 35861 x 1.1 
1993 Jul 2?   AKM-2 burn 
1993 Jul 3?   AKM-3 burn  1437.13 35689 x 35924 x 0.1 GEO 88.8W+0.3W 
1993 Jul 5?   Solar panels deploy 
1993 Jul  (s)   GEO 99W? 
1993 Oct 21    1429.52 35531 x 35784 x 0.3 GEO 99.0W+1.6E 
1993 Nov 29    1436.08 35774 x 35798 x 0.0 GEO 99.0W 
1994 Aug 28    1436.11 35776 x 35797 x 0.0 GEO 99.0W 
1997 Mar 19    1436.12 35776 x 35797 x 0.0 GEO 99.0W 
1997 May 16   To Panamsat  GEO 99W 
1998 May 19  2230  Attitude control failed 
1998 May 27    1436.11 35777 x 35795 x 0.1 GEO 99.0W 
1998 May 27   Orbit raised  1446.53 35885 x 36096 x 0.1 
1999 Jun?   To Hughes Comms Galaxy as HGS-4  
1999 Aug   Reverse drift to stop at 147W 
1999 Aug 17    1444.64 35893 x 36013 x 0.9  
1999 Aug 21   
1432.77 35548 x 35894 x 0.9 GEO 163.7W 
1999 Oct 16    1436.06 35654 x 35917 x 1.1 GEO 148.0W  
2000 Feb 22    1436.14 35611 x 35963 x 1.4 GEO 148.9W 

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