SATCAT № 29644 Inclination 0.03° Period 24 hours | COSPAR ID 2006-054B Mission duration 15 years Inclination 0.03° Launch date 8 December 2006 | |
Launch mass 2,081 kilograms (4,588 lb) Similar AMC‑21, SES‑1, SES‑3, Galaxy 15, Nimiq 5 | ||
Amc 18 wildblue 1 launch onboard an ariane 5
AMC-18 is a geostationary Lockheed Martin A2100A communications satellite owned by SES Americom. It was launched on December 8, 2006 from Kourou aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle and is situated at 105° west longitude, providing coverage of North America with twenty-four C band transponders of 12-18 watts each. Future users in May 2007 include The CW Television Network, NASA TV and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, among other services.
The spacecraft can deliver and receive signals from 50 states, the Caribbean and Mexico and has been designated as the third HD-PRIME satellite.
Originally built as a ground spare to the AMC-10 and AMC-11 satellite program, AMC-18 is optimized for digital television distribution from the center of the U.S. orbital arc.
The satellite has an expected lifetime of at least 15 years.