The DirecTV satellite fleet is a group of communications satellites located at various geostationary orbits

Geostationary orbit

A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...

 for the DirecTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

 satellite broadcast service and HughesNet (formerly known as DirectWAY and DirectPC) internet service.

Satellites and their orbits

Defunct satellites are highlighted in gold.

Satellite	Orbital slot	Launch date*	Launch vehicle	Satellite type	Separated mass	Mass at BOL	Mass at EOL
	109.8°W		Ariane 4 Ariane 4 Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it...	Hughes Electronics HS-601	2970 kg at GTO	1680 kg	1300 kg
	100.8°W		Atlas IIA	Hughes Electronics HS-601
			Ariane 42-P	Hughes Electronics HS-601
	109.5°W		Atlas IIA	Space Systems/Loral Space Systems/Loral Space Systems/Loral , of Palo Alto, California, is the wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications. It was acquired in 1990 for $715 million by Loral Corp. from Ford Motor Company as the Space Systems Division of Ford Aerospace...  LS-1300
			Zenit-3SL Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL is an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it has been launched 30 times, with two failures and one partial failure. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau. RKK Energia produces the Block DM-SL upper...	Hughes Electronics HS-601HP
	101.2° W		Ariane 4	Hughes Electronics HS-601HP
	109.8° W		Proton	Space Systems/Loral LS-1300	3640 kg at TO
Galaxy 3C			Zenit-3SL	Boeing Boeing The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...  BSS-702
	119.0°W 119th meridian west The meridian 119° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, North America, the Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....		Zenit-3SL	Space Systems/Loral LS-1300
	100.8°W		Proton M	Space Systems/Loral LS-1300
SPACEWAY-1 SPACEWAY-1 Spaceway F1 is part of DirecTV’s constellation of direct broadcast satellites. The satellite was launched via a Zenit 3SL rocket from Sea Launch’s Odyssey equatorial platform on April 26, 2005. Its operational position is in geosynchronous orbit above the equator at 102.8 degrees west longitude....	102.8°W		Zenit-3SL	Boeing BSS-702
SPACEWAY-2 SPACEWAY-2 Spaceway F2 is part of DirecTV’s constellation of direct broadcast satellites. The satellite was launched via an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on November 16, 2005. Its operational position is in geosynchronous orbit above the equator at 99.2 degrees west longitude....			Ariane 5 ECA	Boeing BSS-702
	101.1°W		Ariane 5 ECA	Space Systems/Loral LS-1300
	102.8°W		Proton M	Boeing BSS-702	5893 kg at GTO
DirecTV-11 DirecTV-11 DirecTV-11, also known as D11, is a Boeing model 702 satellite built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center.- Technology :This satellite is functionally identical to DirecTV-10 and is co-located with SPACEWAY-2 at or very near 99.225°W.- Launch data :...			Zenit-3SL	Boeing BSS-702	6060 kg at GTO	3700 kg
DirecTV-12 DirecTV-12 DirecTV-12, also known as D12, is a Boeing model 702 satellite built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center. It was launched on December 29, 2009 and became operational on May 19, 2010...	102.8°W	December 28, 2009	Proton M	Boeing BSS-702
DirecTV-14	unknown	2013	unknown	Space Systems/Loral LS-1300

*Default sort column

DirecTV-2 having reached the end of its useful life span, on April 16, 2007, the FCC granted DirecTV's request to conduct operations to deorbit the satellite, it was subsequently removed from service in May 2007.

DirecTV-3 was removed from service in Oct 2002 and sent to a storage orbit as an on-orbit backup. It returned to service in 2003 having been leased to Telesat, which used the satellite as backup for its troubled Nimiq-2 at 82 degrees West under the designation Nimiq-2i. In 2004 the satellite was moved to back up Nimiq-1 and is now operated under the name Nimiq-3.

DirecTV-6 went out of service August 15, 2006 and sent to a graveyard orbit

Graveyard orbit

A graveyard orbit, also called a supersynchronous orbit, junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit significantly above synchronous orbit, where spacecraft are intentionally placed at the end of their operational life...

 having suffered damage from a solar flare in April 1997 as well as other solar array and power fluctuation problems.

Galaxy 3C is operated by Intelsat

Intelsat

Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...

. DirecTV leases non-DBS FSS transponders for international programming under the auspices of the DirecTV World Direct package.

Galaxy 3C

Galaxy 3C is a geostationary communications satellite located at 95° W

95th meridian west

The meridian 95° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, North America, the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, the Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....

. It was launched on June 15, 2002, with a Sea Launch

Sea Launch

Sea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets...

 vehicle, and is currently active on the C and Ku-bands, with 24 transponders for each. Owned by Intelsat, some of the satellite's users include DirecTV's Brazil and Latin America systems, the Racetrack TV Network DBS service, and HughesNet.

Rite-Aid, TJ Maxx, and Chevron

Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...

 use Galaxy 3C as a VSAT platform.

SPACEWAY 1 & SPACEWAY 2

The SPACEWAY

SPACEWAY

The SPACEWAY system was originally envisioned as a global Ka band communications system by Hughes Electronics. When the project to build the system was taken over by Hughes Network Systems, a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, it was transformed into a phased deployment initially only launching a...

 satellites were originally designed for use by Hughes Electronics. The satellites were re-purposed for DirecTV after News Corporation purchased a controlling interest in Hughes.

DirecTV-10, DirecTV-11, and DirecTV-12

DirecTV satellites 10, 11, and 12 are Boeing model 702 satellites designed to deliver high definition television to the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska.

DirecTV successfully launched its newest satellite, DirecTV-12

DirecTV-12

DirecTV-12, also known as D12, is a Boeing model 702 satellite built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center. It was launched on December 29, 2009 and became operational on May 19, 2010...

, on December 28, 2009. It became fully operational on May 19, 2010.

External links

• Lyngsat page. Accessed February 19, 2006
• Corporate site Accessed February 19, 2006