Intelsat III F-5 was a

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

intended to be operated by Intelsat. Launched towards geostationary orbit in 1969 it failed to achieve orbit.

Design

The fifth of eight Intelsat III satellites to be launched, Intelsat III F-5 was built by TRW. It was a spacecraft equipped with two

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

s to be powered by body-mounted solar cells generating 183 watts of power. It had a design life of five years and carried an SVM-2

apogee motor An apogee kick motor (AKM) is a rocket motor that is regularly employed on artificial satellites to provide the final impulse to change the trajectory from the transfer orbit into its final (most commonly circular) orbit. For a satellite laun ...

for propulsion.

Launch

Intelsat III F-5 was launched by a Delta M rocket, flying from Launch Complex 17A at the

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...

. The launch took place on July 26, 1969, with the spacecraft bound for a

geosynchronous transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step f ...

. Due to a failure in the

third phase Third phase is the term for a stable emulsion which forms in a liquid–liquid extraction when the original two phases (aqueous and organic) are mixed. The third phase can be caused by a detergent (surfactant) or a fine solid. While third phase is ...

of the launch process, the satellite did not reach the desired orbit.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1968 Intelsat satellites Spacecraft launched in 1969 1969 in spaceflight Satellite launch failures

Design

Launch

See also

References