Galaxy 26

Galaxy 26
Names	G-26 ; Intelsat Americas 6 ; IA-6 ; Telstar 6
Mission type	Communications
Operator	Intelsat
COSPAR ID	2005-005A
SATCAT no.	25626
Website	https://www.intelsat.com
Mission duration	12 years (planned) ; 9 years (achieved)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Galaxy
Bus	SSL 1300S
Manufacturer	Space Systems/Loral
Launch mass	3,763 kg (8,296 lb)
Dry mass	1,469 kg (3,239 lb)
Power	16 kW
Start of mission
Launch date	15 February 2005, 05:12:00 UTC
Rocket	Proton-K / DM-03
Launch site	Baikonur , Site 81/23
Contractor	Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center
Entered service	April 2005
End of mission
Disposal	Graveyard orbit
Deactivated	7 June 2014
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Geostationary orbit
Slot	93° West
Transponders
Band	52 transponders : ; 24 C-band ; 28 Ku-band
Bandwidth	36 MHz
Coverage area	Canada , United States , Mexico
	Intelsat constellation ← Galaxy 25 Galaxy 27 →

Galaxy 26 is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat . It was built by Space Systems/Loral , as part of its SSL 1300 satellite bus . Galaxy 26 was formerly known as Intelsat Americas 6 and Telstar 6 . It was launched aboard a Proton-K / DM-03 from Baikonur Cosmodrome , Site 81/23 . ^[1]

It spent most of its operational life at the 93° West longitude orbital position, serving the North American market. Clients included ABC , CBS , CNN and FOX .

The ailing bird [ edit ]

Galaxy 26, known as Telstar 6 at the time, had its share of problems since its 15 February 1999 launch. It had lost a backup command and control receiver, the back up computer, and had completely shut off twice. The satellite first shut down on 22 April 2001 causing the Fox network to relocate feeds to Telstar 5 at 97° West. Then on 11 April 2002 it shut down again and went into a very slow spin. ^[2]

On 29 June 2008, Galaxy 26 had a power failure in one of its solar panels. It lost 15 kilowatts out of a possible 37 kilowatt capacity, which is very important for charging the batteries. ^[3] Also, there were multiple transponder failures. Several cable television networks immediately took action to move their feeds to backup satellites in order to keep themselves on air in the event of total failure. Fox News moved operations to Galaxy 16 transponders 7, 9, and 11, and to AMC-5 transponder 4K Slot F according to a Fox News internal email. Within a week, CBS had moved all main feeds to Galaxy 25, and all secondary feeds to Galaxy 28, according to an internal email.

In February 2009, following an urgent call from the Pentagon's Joint staff, Intelsat moved the satellite to the 50.8° East orbital position for use by the United States Department of Defense for unmanned aerial vehicle support. ^[4] This repositioning of the Galaxy-26, which could be reached by U.S. drone operators by using the relay station at Ramstein Air Base , facilitated the rapid expansion of the U.S. drone program. ^[5]

End of mission [ edit ]

Galaxy 26 was officially decommissioned on 7 June 2014. ^[6] The satellite was originally scheduled for decommissioning around 15 March 2014, but that date was extended following delays in the launch of two replacement satellites. ^[7]

References [ edit ]

^ "Report # 389" . Jonathan's Space Report. 18 February 1999 . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .
^ "Mr. Video's Satellite Slates" . vidiot.com . 22 April 2001 . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .
^ "Wattlessness Has Afflicted Intelsat's Galaxy 26" . SatNews. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
^ "Intelsat Repositions Satellite to Serve Military" . intelsat.com . 24 March 2009. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015 . Retrieved 18 April 2015 .
^ Jeremy Scahill (17 April 2015). "Germany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America's Drone War" . The Intercept . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .
^ Sears, Kay (14 July 2014). "Old Satellites Never Die, They Just Fade Away" . Intelsat General Corporation. Archived from the original on 14 October 2016 . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .
^ "STA Request" . 12 March 2014. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .

External links [ edit ]

Gunter's Space Page - information on Galaxy 26
Galaxy-26 Ku-band North America Beam footprint(s) at SatBeams
Galaxy-26 C-band North America Beam footprint(s) at SatBeams

[JSR-1] "Report # 389" . Jonathan's Space Report. 18 February 1999 . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .

[2] "Mr. Video's Satellite Slates" . vidiot.com . 22 April 2001 . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .

[3] "Wattlessness Has Afflicted Intelsat's Galaxy 26" . SatNews. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.

[intelsat.com-4] "Intelsat Repositions Satellite to Serve Military" . intelsat.com . 24 March 2009. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015 . Retrieved 18 April 2015 .

[theintercept-5] Jeremy Scahill (17 April 2015). "Germany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America's Drone War" . The Intercept . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .

[Intelsat-6] Sears, Kay (14 July 2014). "Old Satellites Never Die, They Just Fade Away" . Intelsat General Corporation. Archived from the original on 14 October 2016 . Retrieved 14 April 2021 .

[FCC-7] "STA Request" . 12 March 2014. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .

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v t e Intelsat Corporation
COMSAT Intelsat Americas PanAmSat ITSO STS-49 List of Intelsat satellites
Intelsat I , II , III	Intelsat I Intelsat II F-1 II F-2 II F-3 II F-4 Intelsat III F-1 III F-2 III F-3 III F-4 III F-5 III F-6 III F-7 III F-8
Intelsat IV	Intelsat IV F-1 IV F-2 IV F-3 IV F-4 IV F-5 IV F-6 IV F-7 IV F-8 IVA F-1 IVA F-2 IVA F-3 IVA F-4 IVA F-5 IVA F-6
Intelsat V	Intelsat V F-1 V F-2 V F-3 V F-4 V F-5 V F-6 V F-7 V F-8 V F-9 † VA F-10 VA F-11 VA F-12 VA F-13 VA F-14 VA F-15
Intelsat VI	Intelsat 601 602 603 604 605
Intelsat 7-10	Intelsat 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 801 802 803 804 805 806 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 10-02
ex-PanAmSat	Intelsat 1R 2 3R 4 5 6B 7 8 9 10 11 12
Recent Intelsat	Intelsat 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 (New Dawn) 29e 30 31 32e 33e 34 35e 36 37e 38 39 40e
Galaxy (Intelsat Americas)	Galaxy 3C 4R 5 9 10R 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 23 25 26 27 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
Other	APR-1 APR-2 Horizons-1 Horizons-2 Horizons-3e Intelsat K Marisat -F2 SBS 6

v t e ← 1998 Orbital launches in 1999 2000 →
January	Mars Polar Lander ROCSAT-1
February	Stardust Globalstar 23 , Globalstar 36 , Globalstar 38 , Globalstar 40 Telstar 6 JCSAT-6 Soyuz TM-29 ARGOS , Ørsted , SUNSAT Arabsat 3A , Skynet 4E Globus No.15
March	Wide Field Infrared Explorer Globalstar 23 , Globalstar 37 , Globalstar 41 , Globalstar 46 AsiaSat 3S DemoSat
April	Progress M-41 , Sputnik 99 INSAT-2E USA-142 Eutelsat W3 Globalstar 19 , Globalstar 42 , Globalstar 44 , Globalstar 45 Landsat 7 UoSAT-12 Ikonos-1 ABRIXAS , Megsat-0 USA-143
May	Orion 3 Feng Yun 1C , Shijian 5 TERRIERS , MUBLCOM Nimiq 1 USA-144 Oceansat-1 , Kitsat-3 , DLR-Tubsat STS-96 ( Starshine 1 )
June	Globalstar 25 , Globalstar 47 , Globalstar 49 , Globalstar 52 Iridium 14A , Iridium 21A Astra 1H QuikSCAT FUSE
July	Gran' No.45 Molniya 3-50 Globalstar 30 , Globalstar 32 , Globalstar 35 , Globalstar 51 Progress M-42 Okean-O No.1 STS-93 ( Chandra ) Globalstar 26 , Globalstar 28 , Globalstar 43 , Globalstar 48
August	Telkom 1 , Globalstar 24 , Globalstar 27 , Globalstar 53 , Globalstar 54 Kosmos 2365 Kosmos 2366
September	Koreasat 3 Yamal-101 , Yamal-102 Foton 12 Globalstar 33 , Globalstar 50 , Globalstar 55 , Globalstar 58 EchoStar V Ikonos 2 Telstar 7 LMI-1 Resurs F-1M
October	USA-145 DirecTV-1R CBERS-1 , SACI-1 Globalstar 31 , Globalstar 56 , Globalstar 57 , Globalstar 59 Orion 2 Ekspress A1
November	GE-4 MTSAT-1 Shenzhou 1 Globalstar 29 , Globalstar 34 , Globalstar 39 , Globalstar 61 USA-146
December	Helios 1B , Clementine Orbcomm FM30 , Orbcomm FM31 , Orbcomm FM32 , Orbcomm FM33 , Orbcomm FM34 , Orbcomm FM35 , Orbcomm FM36 XMM-Newton † VLS-1 V02 ( SACI-2 ) USA-147 Terra STS-103 Arirang-1 , ACRIMSAT , Millennial Galaxy 11 Kosmos 2367 Kosmos 2368
Launches are separated by dots ( ? ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).