Attachment 129 Ciel-2 STA

This document pretains to SES-STA-20110914-01084 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Earth Station filing.

IBFS_SESSTA2011091401084_916910

                                      Before the
                        FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
                                 Washington, D.C. 20554


                                                 )
In the Matter of                                 ) File No. SES-STA-________-_____
                                                 )
DISH OPERATING L.L.C. AND                        ) Call Sign E050029
ECHOSTAR BROADCASTING CORPORATION                ) Call Signs E950288, E970394, E980178
                                                 )
Application for Emergency Special                )
Temporary Authority to Allow                     )
Communications with the Ciel-2 Satellite         )
Outside of Its Station-keeping Limits            )
                                                 )


        APPLICATION FOR EMERGENCY SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY

          Pursuant to Sections 25.120(a) and 25.120(b) of the Commission’s rules,1 DISH

Operating L.L.C. (“DISH”) and EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation (“EchoStar”) hereby request

emergency Special Temporary Authority (“STA”) to permit communications with the Ciel-2

satellite licensed by Canada to Ciel Satellite Communications (“Ciel”), an affiliate of SES New

Skies (with Ciel, “SES”), outside of its station-keeping limits for a period of ten days while the

satellite is returned to its Canadian-licensed 128.85° W.L. orbital location (plus or minus 0.05

degrees for station-keeping) in order to correct an excursion that was beyond DISH’s or

EchoStar’s control.

          As the Commission is aware, DISH’s affiliate, DISH Network L.L.C. (“DISH Network”),

provides Direct Broadcast Satellite (“DBS”) service to consumers through DISH’s blanket earth




1
    47 C.F.R. § 25.120(a), (b).


station authorization to communicate with the Ciel-2 satellite.2 EchoStar, for its part, holds

feeder link earth station authorizations to communicate with Ciel-2.3

         During the evening of Tuesday, September 13, 2011, an operational problem at the

Canadian satellite Ciel-2 ground control station, located in Canada, caused the satellite to lose

earth pointing. This, in turn, resulted in the disruption of service to some DISH Network DBS

subscribers. Service has since been restored. But DISH and EchoStar have been informed by

SES that the process of restoring the satellite with the correct orbital attitude parameters caused

the satellite to drift west. SES is expected to cause the satellite’s drift to stop at 129.2° W.L. on

September 15, 2011. SES will then cause the satellite to drift back to the nominal station-

keeping box at 128.85° W.L. +/- 0.05°, a drift that it expects to complete by Monday, September

19, 2011. DISH and EchoStar understand that at no time did the satellite veer outside the

128.8°-129.2° W.L. orbital cluster allotted to Canada under the International Telecommunication

Union’s Region 2 Broadcasting-Satellite Service Plan.

         Nevertheless, although the satellite is not licensed to either of them, DISH and EchoStar

request this STA because their market access and earth station authorizations are conditioned on

Ciel-2 being operated within +/- 0.05° of the 128.85° W.L. orbital location. According to the

authorizations, “Ciel shall not operate the Ciel-2 satellite outside of these station-keeping limits

without further authorization.”4 STA to permit continued communications with Ciel-2 is

warranted because there is nothing DISH or EchoStar could have done to prevent this event from

2
    DISH Operating L.L.C., Call Sign E050029.
3
 EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation, Call Sign E950288; EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation,
Call Sign E970394; EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation, Call Sign E980178.
4
 DISH Operating L.L.C., Call Sign E050029, Condition 491; EchoStar Broadcasting
Corporation, Call Sign E950288, Condition 491; EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation, Call Sign
E970394, Condition 491; EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation, Call Sign E980178, Condition
491.

                                                  2


occurring, and the STA will permit continued service with no further expected disruptions to

DISH Network customers while the orbital maneuvers are being executed to return the satellite

to the 128.85° W.L. nominal orbital location. The STA could not have been requested earlier

than today as the satellite’s orbital parameters and drift were not reported to DISH and EchoStar

until the morning of Wednesday, September 14, 2011.5

         The requested authority will cause no harmful interference to other satellites, because the

maximum excursion of the Ciel-2 satellite to the 129.2° W.L. orbital location and its drift back to

128.85° W.L. will only mean a slightly greater spatial separation from the nearest DBS satellite,

which is located at 119.1° W.L. With respect to collision risk and space debris mitigation, the

closest adjacent satellite to the Ciel-2 satellite is AMC 11 at 131° W.L and Galaxy 13 at 127°

W.L., and therefore the requested authority poses no risk for another spacecraft.

         In conclusion, DISH and EchoStar request that STA be granted for a period of ten days,

until (and including) September 23, 2011, to permit communications with the Ciel-2 satellite

while it drifts back to within its station-keeping limits for its licensed 128.85° W.L. orbital

location.

                                               Respectfully submitted,

                                                        /s/
Pantelis Michalopoulos                          Alison Minea
Christopher Bjornson                            Corporate Counsel
Steptoe & Johnson LLP                           EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation
1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW                     1110 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 750
Washington, D.C. 20036                          Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 429-3000                                  (202) 293-0981
Counsel for EchoStar Broadcasting
Corporation and DISH Operating L.L.C.


September 14, 2011

5
    See 47 C.F.R. § 25.120(a).

                                                  3



Document Created: 2011-09-14 20:08:32
Document Modified: 2011-09-14 20:08:32

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