SES-14 VA241 January 2018

[Channel Hopper]

Update: overnight Arianespace press release


The launcher’s liftoff took place on January 25, 2018 at 7:20 pm. A few seconds after ignition of the upper stage, the second tracking station located in Natal, Brazil, did not acquire the launcher telemetry. This lack of telemetry lasted throughout the rest of powered flight. Subsequently, both satellites were confirmed separated, acquired and they are on orbit. SES-14 and Al Yah 3 are communicating with their respective control centers. Both missions are continuing.

Note they are very careful not to say that the satellites are in the correct orbits. As far as I can tell from a quick look at the spaceflight forums, the exact positions of the birds is currently not known so its quite possible the two birds are rather lower than intended

Duck!

 

[adonis1]

The mission experienced some challenges during the launch stages which resulted in the Al Yah 3 satellite being inserted into an orbit that differed from the flight plan. However, the satellite is healthy and operating nominally. A revised flight plan will be executed in order to achieve the operational orbit and fulfil the original mission.

Yahsat confirms launch of Al Yah 3 mission Satellite to greatly increase its global coverage – Yahsat

 

[Analoguesat]

SES have confirmed SES14 is in good health & will make its final slot - a month later than expected

SES-14 in good health and on track despite launch anomaly



Press release details for posterity


SES-14 in good health and on track despite launch anomaly

Written on 26 Jan 2018

Following Ariane-5 launch anomaly, SES has successfully established connection with SES-14
Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, 26 January 2018 – Following the anomaly that occurred during the launch on an Ariane 5 rocket last night, SES announces that it has successfully established a telemetry and telecommand connection to its SES-14 spacecraft and is setting up a new orbit raising plan now. SES-14 would thus reach the geostationary orbit only four weeks later than originally planned. SES confirms that the spacecraft is in good health, all subsystems on board are nominal, and the satellite is expected to meet the designed life time.
SES-14 will be positioned at 47.5 degrees West to serve Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and the North Atlantic region with C- and Ku-band wide beam coverage and Ku-band high throughput spot beam coverage.

 

[william-1]

There may be something of interest on the European Footprints when SES-14 starts

Satellite | SES

 

[s-band]

I guess that the NORAD 43174-7 on this list are SES-14 etc: Tracking data for new satellite launches (last 30 days launches) 26-01-2018 17:42:32 UTC Jens T. Satre www.satellite-calculations.com
and this one may be SES-14 Track 2018-012A 111.327 West and view detailed satellite position data 2018-01-26 17:42:37 UTC

Putting co-ordinates into their 170 hour predictions, it should be visible in UK tomorrow morning until mid-day ish. According to Satbeams the beacons will be on 12198H and 10953V. It gives Al Yah 3 beacons as 20198.5 and 20199.5 LHCP. However, are these the TT&C beacons in use at the moment?

 

[william-1]

The GOLD project is a mission of opportunity and part of NASA's Explorer Program, designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for heliophysics and astrophysics missions with small to mid-sized spacecraft.

GOLD (Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk) - Satellite Missions - eoPortal Directory

The GOLD instrument is a dual channel imaging spectrograph, each capable of all measurements, with a mass of 37 kg, a power consumption of 72 W (average), a size of 40 x 30 x 70 cm, and a data rate of ~6 Mbit/s.
Focal length of telescope: 150 mm, entrance pupil size 30 mm x 30 mm.

 

[solly]

43174/2018-012A: 232 x 43163 km x 20.64 deg.
43175/2018-012B: 232 x 43198 km x 20.64 deg.
43176/2018-012C: 169 x 42790 km x 21.01 deg.
43177/2018-012D: 235 x 43153 km x 20.64 deg.

 

[s-band]

It's alive

This must be it as there can't be many other signals from this position in the sky:



The beacons appear to be circular polarisation and are quite strong on a 1.2m offset.

 

[Analoguesat]

The NASA spaceflight forum is interesting - according to the contributors on there the flight ended up at an inclination of 21 degrees instead of 3 degrees (the figures given by solly a couple of posts up) . No wonder they couldnt find the bloody things for ages!

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42215.0

Page 11 onwards is the discussion of the launch itself.

 

[Analoguesat]

Desp[ite the core not being expected to survive the water landing SpaceX have confirmed that it did actually survive

 

[s-band]

Here's a plot of beacon spectrum & waterfall. It shows the doppler frequency reducing as the velocity towards the observer (me) was decreasing as SES-14 was on its way towards the horizon. The TLEs were a few days old (as they are on N2YO) so it was about 20 degrees away from where I thought it should be. At the end of the plot it was at 181 az, 22 elev.

 

[hvdh]

Al Yah 3 is make good progress, could be at 17.5°W IOT location in a few weeks.
Graph shows Latitude as function of Longitude, from 21 March to today. Drift 5°W per day.

 

[s-band]

Al Yah 3 is make good progress, could be at 17.5°W IOT location in a few weeks.
Graph shows Latitude as function of Longitude, from 21 March to today. Drift 5°W per day.

Which TLEs are you using? Celestrack were a couple of months old. I switched to NASA which are recent.

 

[hvdh]

The graph I posted comes from the STK software, that retrieves TLE's from AGI's own server.

Indeed 30 days after launch, CelesTrack TLE's disappear from "tle-new.txt", then often take a while before popping up again in "geo.txt".
An all-in TLE list is here: http://www.n2yo.com/tle2/3line.tle
I have my own reference table to extract only the GEO ones.

 

[hvdh]

Al Yah 3 has arrived today at the final location: 20.1°W.

 

[s-band]

Al Yah 3 has arrived today at the final location: 20.1°W.

Both beacons are now active. 20.1985GHz and 20.1995GHz Circular. It's much easier to find now it stays still.

 

[hvdh]

SES-14 has arrived at in-orbit test location 39.0°W.

 

[hvdh]

According TLE's, SES-14 left 39.0°W already after a week, and should now be arriving near 47.5°W.
Probably some further testing will take place.
Half-year report of SES says SES-14 in-service will be in Q4 2018.

 

[hvdh]

SES-14 Goes Operational to Serve the Americas
SES-14 is operational, and co-located with NSS-806 at 47.5°W.
Frequency plans are quite similar in C-band, so transfer of services may be happening without change of parameters.

 

[hvdh]

NSS-806 had moved to 47.65°W for a few weeks, and now drifts West with 4° a day.
Since CoB and ephemeris are not updating any more, this may well be the end-of-life manoever: launch was over 20 years ago.