Intelsat III F-1 was a

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

intended to be operated by

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

. Launched towards

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

in 1968 it failed to achieve orbit.

Design

The first of eight Intelsat III satellites to be launched, Intelsat III F-1 was built by TRW. It was a spacecraft equipped with two

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

s to be powered by body-mounted solar cells generating 183 watts of power. It had a design life of five years and carried an SVM-2 apogee motor for propulsion.

Launch

Intelsat III F-1 was launched on the maiden flight of the Delta M rocket, flying from Launch Complex 17A at the

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the sta ...

. The launch took place at 00:09:00 UTC on September 19, 1968, with the spacecraft bound for a geosynchronous transfer orbit. It was to go in operation above the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

in time to relay broadcasts of the next month's

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

in . Twenty seconds after liftoff a fault became apparent in the gyroscope used to monitor the rate at which the rocket pitched over. Control of the rocket was subsequently lost, with it beginning to disintegrate around 102 seconds into the flight. At 108 seconds after launch the rocket was destroyed by

range safety In rocketry, range safety or flight safety is ensured by monitoring the flight paths of missiles and launch vehicles, and enforcing strict guidelines for rocket construction and ground-based operations. Various measures are implemented to protect ...

References

Intelsat satellites Spacecraft launched in 1968 Satellite launch failures {{US-spacecraft-stub

Design

Launch

See also

References