TerreStar-1, Sirius FM-5 Launch Preview
[Satellite News 06-30-09] The scheduled launches of the TerreStar-1 and Sirius FM-5 satellites mark an extremely important week for North American satellite communications. For both TerreStar and Sirius XM Satellite Radio, the next step in the companies’ service development plans are crucial and dependant on the success of these launches. With a long timeline of delays behind them, both companies stand by eagerly at their launch sites — Sirius XM in Baikonur, TerreStar in French Guiana — waiting for the green light.

Sirius FM-5
Sirius FM-5 brings physical evolution to Sirius’ fleet, with some of the characteristics of its XM Satellite Radio subsidiary’s satellites. Sirius FM-5, set to be placed at 96 degrees West, will have an end-of-life power output of 20 kilowatts and a 9-meter origami-folded reflector dish — a design aimed at sending clearer signals to Sirius XM’s smaller receiver units. Unlike Sirius’ other satellites, FM-5 will be geostationary, similar to XM’s Rock, Roll, Rhythm and Blues satellites. Like the other Sirius satellites, FM-5 was built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), based on its LS-1300 platform. SS/L also is building FM-6, a satellite designed to operate in a highly inclined elliptical orbit and a physical duplicate of FM-5. Both FM-5 and FM-6 are part of Sirius’ plans to replace three active Sirius satellites — once per year through 2012 — and consolidate transponders.
    The move to consolidate space with a leaner fleet is a cost-cutting measure for the company, which has experienced significant financial stress since the merger of Sirius and XM Satellite Radio and the ill-timed global economic crisis. Compacted with these problems, Apple’s iPhone, which birthed unofficial applications that streamed Sirius and XM radio services to the handsets, eliminated the need to purchase receiver units from Sirius XM. By the time an official Sirius XM application was launched for the iPhone in May, it was heavily criticized as bug-laden and prone to random service and signal loss.
    However, the launch of FM-5 comes at the beginning of some positive momentum for the company. Last week, the company reported strong interest and sales from investors of $525 million of senior notes due in 2013. Satwaves analyst Brandon Matthews went so far to say that the debt sale is a sign that global credit markets are finally starting to thaw. “The market makers have a lot of [Sirius XM] shares to sell now that they purchased for 36 cents after the debt sale. I find it highly unlikely that they would sell those shares for less, which bodes well for Sirius XM as we enter a week with quarterly auto sales data on deck and good news on the automotive front should spur demand,” said Matthews.

TerreStar-1
The launch of TerreStar-1 is drawing a considerable amount of attention to the sheer physical size of the spacecraft being launched. The satellite, also based on SS/L’s 1300 platform, is set to be the world’s largest civilian telecommunications satellite ever launched and is the lone payload on the Arianespace ECA heavy launcher mission scheduled for July 1.
    TerreStar-1 aims to provide voice, data and video coverage over the United States and Canada for a line of new mobile products TerreStar has developed with partners to focus on North American consumer markets.
    TerreStar CTO Dennis Matheson discussed the reasoning behind the architecture and technology of the massive satellite. “TerreStar-1 is the size it is because we took a different approach in terms of the overall design of the system. … In this particular case, we knew how the terminals that were made before the consumer-level terminals performed. We decided that we had to design the satellite to talk to the small handheld terminals that are out there or will be out there. Therefore, development led to a larger satellite, a larger reflector and more power on the satellite. So it was kind of a reverse view of how to — from an overall systems design approach — deliver the service that we are going to be delivering,” said Matheson.
    TerreStar will look to use the launch as a boost from the company’s setbacks this year, including its exclusion from the European Commission’s S-band award decision, which gave its mobile satellite services competitors exclusive license to operate in the pan-European mobile spectrum and resulted in a lawsuit against the European Commission challenging the decision.