SXM 8 was originally supposed to replace XM 4, but SiriusXM has not confirmed whether it changed the satellite’s deployment plan after the failure of SXM 7. SiriusXM’s SXM 8 satellite is tucked inside the payload shroud of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting liftoff Sunday. Another satellite, XM 5, is available as an in-orbit spare. SiriusXM said its XM 3 and XM 4 satellites remain operational in geosynchronous orbit and can continue providing radio broadcast services for several years. The Boeing-built XM 3 satellite launched in 2005 aboard a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket. SXM 7 was expected to replace the XM 3 radio broadcasting satellite at 85 degrees west longitude, officials said last year. SiriusXM said it does not expect its satellite radio service to be affected by the SXM 7 failure.
Maxar spent another $3 million attempting to repair and recover the satellite. Maxar said in May that the SXM 7 failure registered a $28 million impact on its financial statement, including $25 million from lost payments from SiriusXM that were due if the spacecraft successfully commenced operations. Sean Sullivan, executive vice president and chief financial officer at SiriusXM, said the company has issued a request for proposals to satellite manufacturers to build a replacement for SXM 7. SiriusXM said it has a $225 million insurance covering the launch and first year of in-orbit operations of the SXM 7 satellite, and the company said it expects to file a claim under the policy. In a quarterly earnings report in April, SiriusXM said it recorded a $220 million impairment charge from the failure of the SXM 7 mission after declaring the satellite a total loss. SiriusXM confirmed the failure of “certain SXM 7 payload units” in January, following orbit-raising maneuvers to reach a circular geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.
The first satellite, SXM 7, successfully launched last December on a Falcon 9 rocket but suffered a payload failure before entering service. SXM 8 is the second spacecraft in a two-satellite order placed by SiriusXM in 2016. Liftoff is set for a one-hour, 59-minute launch window opening at 12:26 a.m. The high-power SXM 8 broadcast satellite, built by Maxar in Palo Alto, California, is tucked inside the nose cone of the Falcon 9 rocket on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SiriusXM will get a new radio broadcasting satellite with a launch scheduled early Sunday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, following the failure of an identical spacecraft after a launch last December.
0 kommentar(er)
