Intelsat III F-6 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 sixth 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-6 was built by
TRW. It was a spacecraft equipped with two
transponders 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-6 was launched on a
Delta M
The Delta M or Thor-Delta M was an American expendable launch system used for thirteen orbital launches between 1968 and 1971. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets.
The Delta M had a three-stage configuration. The first stage was the ...
rocket, flying from
Launch Complex 17A at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch took place on January 15, 1970, with the spacecraft bound for a
geosynchronous transfer orbit.
See also
*
1970 in spaceflight
Japan and China each launched their first satellites in 1970, bringing the total number of nations with independent launch capability to five.
Apollo 13 was launched; after suffering an explosion in deep space it had to circumnavigate the moon ...
References
{{Orbital launches in 1970
Intelsat satellites
Spacecraft launched in 1970
1970 in spaceflight
Satellite launch failures