Intelsat III F-1 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 1968 it failed to achieve orbit.

Design

The first of eight Intelsat III satellites to be launched, Intelsat III F-1 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-1 was launched on the maiden flight of the 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 at 00:09:00 UTC on September 19, 1968, 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 ...

. It was to go in operation above the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in time to relay broadcasts of the next month's Olympics in {{nowrap,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

.{{cite news, url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Mt0yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oVoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7221%2C5379790 , work=St. Petersburg Times , location=(Florida) , agency=UPI , title=Rocket explodes after launch; new satellite lost , date=September 19, 1968 , page=11A{{cite news, url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=F7dWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bekDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4813%2C669578 , work=Spokesman-Review , location=(Spokane, Washington) , agency=Associated Press , title=Blast ends orbit try for satellite , date=September 19, 1968 , page=1{{cite news , url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Mt0yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oVoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7221%2C5379790, title=Rocket explodes after launch; new satellite lost, publisher=The St. Petersburg Times (Florida), agency=UPI , date=September 19, 1968, page=11A Twenty seconds after liftoff a fault became apparent in the gyroscope used to monitor the rate at which the rocket pitched over. Control of the rocket was subsequently lost, with it beginning to disintegrate around 102 seconds into the flight. At 108 seconds after launch the rocket was destroyed by

range safety In the field of rocketry, range safety may be assured by a system which is intended to protect people and assets on both the rocket range and downrange in cases when a launch vehicle might endanger them. For a rocket deemed to be ''off course' ...

.{{cite web, url=http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/thrfail.txt, title=Thor-Based Space Launch History, first=Ed, last=Kyle, work=Space Launch Report, access-date=February 9, 2014 {{Clear

References

{{reflist, 2 {{Intelsat {{Orbital launches in 1968 {{DEFAULTSORT:Intelsat 302 Intelsat satellites Spacecraft launched in 1968 Satellite launch failures {{US-spacecraft-stub

Design

Launch

See also

References