Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
20:56:00
Friday October 13, 2006
Read Article
Flight V173.
Optus is an Australian telecommunications company. Optus has the largest network of satellites in Australia and New Zealand.
Geostationary Transfer Orbit
1 Payload
2,350 kilograms
The DirecTV satellite fleet is a group of communications satellites located at various geostationary orbits for the DirecTV satellite television service and HughesNet (formerly known as DirecWAY and DirecPC) internet service. DirecTV-9S is an in-orbit spare for DirecTV-4S and does not presently broadcast any channels.
Geostationary Transfer Orbit
1 Payload
5,501 kilograms
The LDREX (Large-scale Deployable Reflector Experiment Model) is a small partial model antenna built to validate the design of the ETS-8's Large Deployable Antenna, and will conduct experiments to solve various technical problems that the ETS-8 is facing. LDREX lifetime is around 20 minutes.
Geostationary Transfer Orbit
1 Payload
212 kilograms
Manufacturer
ESAPrice
$200.00 million
Rocket
Diameter: 5.4m
Height: 53m
Payload to Orbit
LEO: 21,000 kg
GTO: 10,500 kg
Liftoff Thrust
15,120 Kilonewtons
Fairing
Diameter: 5.4m
Height: 17m
Stages
2
Strap-ons
2
29th
Mission
4th
Mission of 2006
161st
Mission
4th
Mission of 2006
46th
Orbital launch attempt