Starting this spring when U.S. cable television viewers flip on the Discovery Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon or Showtime, they will be watching the channels via a broadcasting satellite successfully launched into space Thursday from Cape Canaveral.
With a full moon beaming over pad 36A, the Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket roared away from Earth at 6:46 p.m. EST (2346 GMT) carrying the 5,159-pound AMC-10 spacecraft.

Delayed 50 minutes by a balky helium valve, engineers overcame the glitch to reschedule the liftoff with 20 minutes to spare in the day's available launch window.

The Atlas launcher delivered its payload into the proper orbit, increasing the rocket's remarkable string of consecutive successful flights to 69 dating back a decade.

"We are delighted to have had an enormously successful launch of AMC-10," said Mark Albrecht, president of International Launch Services, which manages Atlas missions. "Sixty-nine out of 69 launches since 1993 of all Atlas configurations -- a record that is absolutely unmatched in the launch business. The Atlas team is the gold standard of commercial space launch."

A tracking camera provides this dramatic view the Atlas 2AS rocket's engines during ascent. Credit: ILS TV


Ground controllers established contact with the Lockheed Martin-built satellite through a tracking station in Uralla, Australia, confirming the craft was functioning following the launch.

"This evening's launch was picture-perfect," said Dean Olmstead, president and CEO of SES AMERICOM, operator of AMC-10.

A series of orbit-raising burns will be conducted by AMC-10 in the coming days as it travels from the highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit achieved during launch -- 22,336 by 116 miles inclined 12.4 degrees -- into a circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. The craft is expected to reach its intended perch and deploy the power-generating solar arrays and antennas by late next week before entering a testing period.

SES AMERICOM hopes to have the satellite in full service by early May, replacing the aging Satcom C-4 satellite at the 135-degree West longitude orbital slot. From that vantage point, dozens of television networks will be transmitted to AMC-10 for relay to cable companies across America. Those companies in turn pipe the programming to subscribers in over 80 million U.S. homes.

One of the two ground-lit solid rocket boosters is seen here jettisoning from the Atlas first stage just over a minute into flight. Credit: ILS TV


"AMC-10 will be delivering some of America's leading cable programs...reaching almost every television household with all sorts of entertainment, information, and event programming, including high-definition services from Discovery and Showtime," said Olmstead.

Networks that will use AMC-10 include Animal Planet, Bravo, CNBC, C-SPAN, numerous Discovery channels, E!, Flix, Food Network, History Channel, Home & Garden Television, Home Shopping Network, iN DEMAND, MTV, Nickelodeon, QVC, Showtime, The Learning Channel, Travel Channel, TV Land, VH-1 and The Weather Channel.

AMC-10 will be joined in orbit by its twin, AMC-11, when it's launched May 19 aboard another Atlas 2AS rocket.

"Since the AMC-10 and AMC-11 satellites are two of a kind, we fully expect to be repeating another successful mission right here at the Cape in a few months' time," Albrecht said.

AMC-11 will replace the Satcom C-3 spacecraft at the 131-degree West orbital location to relay even more networks to cable watchers.

"If you watch TV, more than half of the content that you see...has gone over AMERICOM satellites," Olmstead told reporters at a morning news conference. "We are the service behind the delivery of the premium channels in the U.S., and that historically has been provided on our satellites that are now reaching the end of their lives and being replaced by these new-technology satellites, AMC-10 and 11."

Providing nearly 20 percent more power than the Satcoms they are replacing, the AMC pair will offer enhanced digital programming and high-definition channels. They each feature 24 C-band transponders and planned service lives of 15 years.

High-definition users of AMC-10 include Discovery HD Theater, Showtime, NBC and PBS. Additional HD users could be in the offing.

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