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Domain: hughespace.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to hughespace.com.

Comments · 12

  1. Happy with XM by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius?

    I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

  2. Slingshot link by djmurdoch · · Score: 2 · on NASA Satellite Stranded

    Bogasity's link was a press release from before the attempted slingshot; it worked.

  3. Slingshot link by djmurdoch · · Score: 2 · on NASA Satellite Stranded

    Bogasity's link was a press release from before the attempted slingshot; it worked.

  4. Re:liquid fuel? by bogasity · · Score: 2, Informative · on NASA Satellite Stranded

    TDRS HIJ were designed for launch on an Atlas in order to reduce launch expenses. Also, none of the articles I have read yet have indicated that TDRS I is leaking fuel. There are many other failures that could lead to a lack of fuel flow from one the tanks - a pinched line, failure of the pressurization system, bad bladder inside the tank, etc. If you read Boeing's statement, they have confidence they can resolve the problem. After seeing Hughes (now Boeing) engineers slingshot a satellite around the moon a couple times to get it to a geosync orbit, I wouldn't underestimate what they can do in this case.

  5. Older rescue by Account+10 · · Score: 3, Informative · on NASA Satellite Stranded

    This is the story of the successful rescue of an Intelsat after it failed to seperate from its rocket and got stuck in a low orbit. It took 6 tries over 3 days for the shuttle crew to catch it.

    The TDRS satellite has a similar mass to the Intelsat

  6. The distribution method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Lack of Digital Screens for Attack of the Clones

    Sorry about the AC, but I'm an employee...

    Boeing Digital Cinema, part of Boeing Space and Communications (formerly Hughes Aerospace) is already distributing movies (masterpieces such as "Spy Kids") digitally. They estimate it would cost 4 Billion dollars to retrofit the USA's 30,000 movie screens. Neat tech, doesn't change the fact that I'm getting laid off, tho. :(

  7. Re:Hooray, 500 channels... by JCMay · · Score: 2 · on Cringley On Bandwidth-Expanding Modulation Technology

    What really bugs me is DirectTV. After sending up a few satellites, what more do they have to do when adding new customers? They make more dishes but thats probably about it. Once in a while they might have to do some upgrades but I doubt it. These people are now paying 40 bucks a month to a company that is probably taking 35 dollars of that and putting it right in their pocket. Its discusting, I just wish I would have came up with the idea sooner =-).


    I doubt Hughes is making too much money on DirecTV yet. You seem to think that satellites are cheap; "all" you have to do is throw one up there and the cash just starts rolling in.

    First of all, launching a comm satellite can cost upwards of twenty or more MILLION dollars for a disposable rocket. Doesn't the shuttle cost like $1 billion per launch to operate? That's just for vehicle delivery, and doesn't count the cost of designing and building the bird.

    Next, the DirecTV birds are not your normal comm satellites. Their downlink sections are huge. The bird sits 22,500 miles away, and all I need to receive enough signal to be usable is a 18" dish? That satellite is screaming. That costs money. I imagine that the satellites cost more than $100 million. Each.

    Satellite TV providers are at a disadvantage with respect to cable operators in that they must build out their entire infrastructure before they can sign their first customer. Traditionally, early adoptors of cable pay for the expansion of the covered territory.

    Digital satellite radio has the same build-out problems and costs. So did Iridium, for that matter. So will Teledesic.

    They're not making as much money as you think simply because their initial cash outlay to get started was (ahem) astronomical. I bet they're still working to recoup their initial investment.
  8. Re:Hooray, 500 channels... by JCMay · · Score: 2 · on Cringley On Bandwidth-Expanding Modulation Technology

    What really bugs me is DirectTV. After sending up a few satellites, what more do they have to do when adding new customers? They make more dishes but thats probably about it. Once in a while they might have to do some upgrades but I doubt it. These people are now paying 40 bucks a month to a company that is probably taking 35 dollars of that and putting it right in their pocket. Its discusting, I just wish I would have came up with the idea sooner =-).


    I doubt Hughes is making too much money on DirecTV yet. You seem to think that satellites are cheap; "all" you have to do is throw one up there and the cash just starts rolling in.

    First of all, launching a comm satellite can cost upwards of twenty or more MILLION dollars for a disposable rocket. Doesn't the shuttle cost like $1 billion per launch to operate? That's just for vehicle delivery, and doesn't count the cost of designing and building the bird.

    Next, the DirecTV birds are not your normal comm satellites. Their downlink sections are huge. The bird sits 22,500 miles away, and all I need to receive enough signal to be usable is a 18" dish? That satellite is screaming. That costs money. I imagine that the satellites cost more than $100 million. Each.

    Satellite TV providers are at a disadvantage with respect to cable operators in that they must build out their entire infrastructure before they can sign their first customer. Traditionally, early adoptors of cable pay for the expansion of the covered territory.

    Digital satellite radio has the same build-out problems and costs. So did Iridium, for that matter. So will Teledesic.

    They're not making as much money as you think simply because their initial cash outlay to get started was (ahem) astronomical. I bet they're still working to recoup their initial investment.
  9. Re:Hooray, 500 channels... by JCMay · · Score: 2 · on Cringley On Bandwidth-Expanding Modulation Technology

    What really bugs me is DirectTV. After sending up a few satellites, what more do they have to do when adding new customers? They make more dishes but thats probably about it. Once in a while they might have to do some upgrades but I doubt it. These people are now paying 40 bucks a month to a company that is probably taking 35 dollars of that and putting it right in their pocket. Its discusting, I just wish I would have came up with the idea sooner =-).


    I doubt Hughes is making too much money on DirecTV yet. You seem to think that satellites are cheap; "all" you have to do is throw one up there and the cash just starts rolling in.

    First of all, launching a comm satellite can cost upwards of twenty or more MILLION dollars for a disposable rocket. Doesn't the shuttle cost like $1 billion per launch to operate? That's just for vehicle delivery, and doesn't count the cost of designing and building the bird.

    Next, the DirecTV birds are not your normal comm satellites. Their downlink sections are huge. The bird sits 22,500 miles away, and all I need to receive enough signal to be usable is a 18" dish? That satellite is screaming. That costs money. I imagine that the satellites cost more than $100 million. Each.

    Satellite TV providers are at a disadvantage with respect to cable operators in that they must build out their entire infrastructure before they can sign their first customer. Traditionally, early adoptors of cable pay for the expansion of the covered territory.

    Digital satellite radio has the same build-out problems and costs. So did Iridium, for that matter. So will Teledesic.

    They're not making as much money as you think simply because their initial cash outlay to get started was (ahem) astronomical. I bet they're still working to recoup their initial investment.
  10. Re:This shouldn't be too suprising by Xenu · · Score: 2 · on Microbes Survive Space Trip
    The early unmanned space probes contained cameras. This was the mid 1960's, the only way to retrieve the images was to pick up the cameras, which our intrepid astronauts did.

    No. The Surveyor spacecraft carried television cameras, not film cameras. They transmitted their pictures back to Earth via radio.

  11. What's the spin-off? by KIngo · · Score: 1 · on India Plans Moon Mission In 2005
    Please compare:
    "The spins-offs for us are going to be many"
    (chairman of the ISRO) and
    Says P.S. Goel, the centre's director who is likely to head the team: "There is nothing fundamental that we have not already done."

    Mr Goel is certainly right. Sending a satellite in lunar orbit is not extremely different from placing it into geosynchroneous Earth orbit. In fact, a commercial comsat of Hughes (AsiaSat 3S), which was thought to be lost due to a 4th stage malfunction of a SL-12 Proton, was rescued to geosynchroneous orbit by performing a double lunar flyby using new resonant orbital hopping theory. Checkout this press release.

    Do something different, please! There are so many good ideas which are untried and could give India international respect and real spin-offs.

  12. Changing directions by SEWilco · · Score: 2 · on New Space Propulsion System Uses Sun's Magnetic Field
    To go in any direction, you put your ship in a path where the magnetic sail accelerates it toward a planet. Then use the planet's gravity to swing around in the direction you want to go.

    I'm sure people with the proper tools, such as the Satellite Tool Kit orbit calculator or Orbital Mechanics CDROM, can make some interesting launches by using the Earth and Moon to redirect trajectories.