DISH Network Runs Out of Gas

“Burn baby burn”, that was in the minds of Dish Network’s launch team last Friday (March 14th 2008) when their orbit insertion booster quit 2 minutes and 13 seconds early.  The insertion booster was delivering the new AMC-14 satellite for Dish Network which would expand its high definition programming by 42%.  There is a possibility that the boosters that are on the satellite could fire and get it in the proper orbit, but that scenario would greatly reduce the life expectancy of the satellite.  The satellite is currently in an unusable orbit, approximately 5,000 miles below the average geostationary orbit.

With DIRECTV holding the HD title, Dish Network has very little room for error if they want to stay competitive in th high definition market.  DIRECTV is already prepared to launch a satellite, DIRECTV-11, that will expand their national HD coverage by 50% (up to 150 channels).  The AMC-14 satellite would have brought Dish Network up to the current capacity of DIRECTV (up to 100 national HD channels).  This setback puts them even further behind in the race.

About the insertion booster from itwire:

The Briz-M upper stage, also known as Proton KM, is a Russian orbit insertion booster stage. It is used to place payloads into orbits with an apogee of about 22,233 miles (35,780 kilometers), a perigee of about 4,368 miles (7,030 kilometers), and an inclination of 17.3 degrees.  The satellite should have been placed in a final geostationary orbit at 61.5 degrees west longitude. However, the Breeze-M single engine, powered with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, quit about two minutes, thirteen seconds earlier than scheduled on a 34-minute burn.

The DIRECTV HD package currently offers just under 100 national high definition channels.  When the DIRECTV-11 satellite is placed into orbit, the national HD capacity will be increased to 150 channels (1,500 local).