Ciel II satellite successfully reaches orbit, gears up for DISH service

by Darren Murph posted Dec 11th 2008 at 10:22AM

If there were any doubts about the purpose of the Ciel II satellite, it's safe to say those questions have been answered. According to a glowing release on International Launch Services' website, the latest bird to leave its hands has successfully reached space, and now it waits to "ultimately be moved to 129 degrees West longitude where it will deliver digital television services to Canada and the contiguous United States." Brian Neill, chairman of the Ciel Satellite Group, was quoted as saying that "now that the spacecraft has delivered an initial signal, Ciel, our founders, investors, and our customer, DISH Network, can look forward to Ciel II's operation early next year." No word on what exactly DISH will use this for "early next year," but it doesn't sound like we'll be waiting long to find out.

[Thanks, Joe]

Filed under: Industry, Satellite

Tags: Ciel II, CielIi, dish network, DishNetwork, EchoStar, expansion, ILS, launch, rocket, satellite, success, successful

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

img eL @ Dec 11th 2008 11:11AM

Voom can come back now, theres more bandwidth?

Neutral

Adam @ Dec 11th 2008 11:15AM

Hey...maybe it will actually bring local HD channels to Indianapolis... I can always hope, right?

Neutral

TJ @ Dec 11th 2008 11:49AM

I wouldn't be surprised to see Indianapolis get HD locals once Echostar XI goes live at the 110 slot.

(It really put us behind when AMC-14 didn't reach orbit.)

By the way, the following are listed as "Potential Local Launches for 2008":

Abilene, TX
Albany, NY
Chattanooga, TN
Fargo, ND
Ft. Myers, FL
Greenville, NC
Lansing, MI
Madison, WI
Sherman-Ada, TX-OK
South Bend, IN
Syracuse, NY
Waco, TX
Wichita Falls, TX
Wilkes Barre, PA

Those should be the next batch or two of HD locals.

Neutral

crawdad62 @ Dec 11th 2008 12:56PM

That's the only reason I went with DirecTV instead of Dish. I can't believe Dish doesn't carry Indy locals in HD. I really wanted to check out Dish's HD DVR's too. :-(

Neutral

Bill @ Dec 11th 2008 5:04PM

Main reason for this satellite is to replace the existing 129 satellite which has been failing for some time, causing poor reception and occasional drop outs of many HD channels for some time. It will also of course add new capacity to the system. This is a long time coming.

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