Intelsat III F-8 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. C ...

owned by

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...

. The satellite had an estimated useful life of 5 years.

Design

The last of eight

Intelsat III Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...

satellites to be launched, Intelsat III F-8 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 word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

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-8 was launched on 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 23, 1970, 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 ...

. The Intelsat III F-8 was lost due to a malfunction during the apogee motor firing. Communications stopped 14.5 seconds into the planned 27 second apogee motor burn.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1970 Intelsat satellites Spacecraft launched in 1970 1969 in spaceflight Satellite launch failures

Design

Launch

See also

References