We Have Liftoff!

Last night we saw a picture perfect blastoff of the DirecTV 11 satellite from the Sea-Launch launch pad located at the equator. At 1:44 AM ET, the folks at Sea Launch announced that they were able to acquire the first signals from the new satellite indicating a successful launch.

The launch telecast was one of the best put together launch broadcasts I can remember seeing, it was both fun to watch and educational.  Paula Korn who is the Director of Communications for Sea Launch hosted the gala launch event from Sea-Launch headquarters in California.

A number of computer generated graphics were shown to help make this “rocket science” easy to understand by anyone.

The timing of everything was exact and Paula explained to everyone what was going to happen next and then after she was done telling us what we were going to see it happened.

For some folks they found it strange that the launch telecast had commercials, but the commercials were all for DirecTV who was proudly blowing their HD horn.

But DirecTV was not the only one tooting their horn, Sea-Launch was as well and listed  a number of milestones for this launch including the fact that this launch was the 250^th time that a DM2 booster rocket was used in a launch.  You could tell through the entire production that there was a lot of pride in the air.

Just moments before liftoff of the rocket carrying DirecTV 11, Paula paused a moment and announced that this launch was dedicated to the memory of Sir Arthur C. Clarke who passed away on Tuesday.  It was a touching and proper dedication to the man who many consider being the father of satellite.

Then just a few second later the countdown started from ten and moved backwards, we saw the engines fire then liftoff of the rocket, unfortunately we could only see the rocket for a few seconds and then the rocket was hidden from view by a heavy cloud cover.  But of what we saw the launch looked perfect.

According to a DirecTV press release this morning it will be early September before the bird is put into operation.

With any satellite launch getting the satellite off the ground is just a very small part of actually getting the satellite in place and performing tests to all systems.  There is a lot that goes into this and it takes a long time to complete.  Its kind of funny since the launch last night I have already received emails from readers asking me that because DirecTV 11 was now up how come there haven’t been any new channels turned on yet.  Patience my friends,  good things come to those who wait!

Congrats to Sea-Launch, DirecTV and all their partners who made this launch a success!

100th Edition of The Satellite Dish!
According to the counters on the MultiChannel News publishers website, this edition of "The Satellite Dish" marks our 100th edition!  I know that I am not the most perfect writer out there, but I have worked hard to improve my writing skills. and I do hope that you have enjoyed and learned from all my enteries.

Writing a column like "The Satellite Dish" is not the easiest thing to do, writing this column three times a week sometimes has me scratching my head wondering what I will talk about next. Sometimes there is nothing new to talk about in the industry, and other times (like this week) the floodgates open and I have loads to talk about.

As I said before I know I am not perfect and am trying my best, and I thank you all for reading "The Satellite Dish!"

Have a great weekend everyone!