Superbird 6

 2004-011A

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Space Comms Corp.'s new satellite is an HS-601 satellite to go to 158E for data and business comms in the W Pacific (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australasia, Hawaii). Mass is 3100 kg.

Known as Superbird 6 before launch, the satellite is to be Superbird A2 after launch.

Because lunar perturbations were not taken into account by Boeing Satellite Systems premission planning, the perigee of the first completed orbit was unexpectedly low, damaging the outboard solar panels. A large burn then raised perigee to 1137 km, saving the mission at the cost of using up much of the satellite's planned on-station operating fuel.

Superbird 6
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
2004 Apr 16	0045:00	Launch by Atlas IIAS AC-163	CC SLC36A
		T+0:59 Air lit SRBs
		T+1:09 Sep of ground SRBs
		T+1:56 sep of air SRBs
		T+2:43 BECO
		T+2:46 Booster package jettison
		T+3:10 76 km, 2.95km/s
		T+3:26 Fairing sep
		T+4:30 121 km
	0050	T+5:00 Atlas SECO
		Atlas sep
	0050	T+5:19 Centaur MES-1
	0054	T+9:43 MECO-1	150 x 396 x
	0109	T+24:23 MES-2
	0111	T+26:17 MECO-2
	0115:05	T+30:04 Centaur sep	169 x 109344 x 26.7 (OIG)
			167 x 122343 x 26.25
2004 Apr 17	1900?	First perigee	100? x 122500? x 26.2
2004 Apr 18	s	LAM-1	1137 x 120678 x 25.5
2004 Apr 19	1200?	Centaur reentry at second perigee
2004 Apr 21?		LAM-2	7904 x 119714 x 13.3
2004 Apr 21?	s	LAM-3
2004 May 10			1441.86 35834 x 35964 x 0.1
2004 May 25			1438.78 35833 x 35844 x 0.0 GEO 145.9E+0.7W/d
2004 Jun 1			1436.07 35774 x 35797 x 0.0 GEO 140.5E
2004 Aug 19			1436.09 35780 x 35792 x 0.0 GEO 158.2E
2004 Sep 20			1436.11 35775 x 35797 x 0.0 GEO 158.2E