Attachment Attachment 1

This document pretains to SAT-STA-20091202-00135 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Space Stations filing.

IBFS_SATSTA2009120200135_784483

REQUEST FOR SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY SES Americom, Inc. (doing business as “SES WORLD SKIES”), the licensee of the AMC-5 space station (Call Sign S2156), respectfully requests the expeditious grant of Special Temporary Authority (“STA”) for a period of one week. STA is sought to permit the AMC-5 satellite to drift slightly outside its assigned station-keeping box of 78.95° W.L. +/- 0.05° for brief periods between December 4 and December 8 to enable accurate thermal fuel gauging measurements to be taken for end-of-life planning purposes. Specifically, SES WORLD SKIES requests authority to allow AMC-5 to drift up to 0.0045° beyond the eastern (78.90° W.L.) edge of its assigned box for limited periods as indicated in Figure 1 below. These minor excursions result from the need to avoid station-keeping maneuvers during thermal fuel gauging. Figure 1 Grant of the requested authority will serve the public interest and is justified under Commission precedent. By enabling SES WORLD SKIES to measure more accurately the fuel remaining on the satellite, the proposed STA will enhance SES WORLD SKIES’ ability to plan for the post-mission disposal of AMC-5 as required by the Commission’s orbital debris mitigation policies.1 Furthermore, operations of other satellites will not be adversely affected. To SES WORLD SKIES’ knowledge, the only other satellite in the immediate vicinity of AMC-5 is SES WORLD SKIES’ Satcom-C3 satellite (Call Sign S2447), which operates at 79.05° W.L. +/- 0.05°. Because Satcom C-3 is to the west of AMC-5, the proposed excursions of AMC-5 outside its assigned station-keeping volume will take AMC-5 farther away from Satcom C-3’s operating box. In addition, these minor excursions will have no impact on the neighboring Venesat-1 satellite at 78° W.L. AMC-5 does not share downlink frequencies in the Ku-band with Venesat-1, and earth stations transmitting to AMC-5 will not be re-pointed during the excursion. The Commission has granted regular authority for licensees to operate in an increased station- 1 Commission policies require space station licensees to calculate and disclose the amount of fuel reserved for de-orbit maneuvers and take steps to address uncertainty in fuel gauging. See 47 C.F.R. § 25.114(d)(14)(iv); Disclosure of Orbital Debris Mitigation Plans, Including Amendment of Pending Applications, DA 05-2698, Report No. SPB- 112, Sat Div. rel. Oct. 13, 2005 at 4 (orbital debris mitigation statements must include “the methods used to determine and address fuel gauging uncertainty”).

keeping volume when doing so has no adverse effect on adjacent satellite operations.2 In light of that precedent, grant of temporary authority for the brief period proposed here is clearly consistent with Commission policies. For all of these reasons, SES WORLD SKIES respectfully requests the expeditious grant of the requested one-week STA. 2 See, e.g., SES Americom, Inc. Application for Modification of Satcom SN-4 Fixed Satellite Space Station License, Order and Authorization, 20 FCC Rcd 11542, 11545 (Sat. Div. 2005) (modifying spacecraft license to allow operation with a 0.1° East/West station-keeping tolerance based on finding that it would not adversely affect operations of other spacecraft and would conserve fuel for future operations). 2


Document Created: 2009-12-01 18:32:14
Document Modified: 2009-12-01 18:32:14
© 2024 FCC.report
This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FCC