Spaceway-1

Spaceway-1 was the heaviest commercial communications satellite 6080 kg ever put into orbit until iPSTAR-1 (6775 kg) was launched by Arianespace on 11 August 2005. T10 was co-located with Spaceway-1 in order to use the 500 MHz of unused spectrum for HDTV broadcasting. This spectrum was originally intended for the broadband internet capabilities of the two Spaceway satellites, called Spaceway, which were disabled by Hughes Network Systems at the request of DirecTV. == Retirement ==

During its last years, Spaceway-1 mainly served as a backup satellite. In December 2019, the satellite suffered significant and irreversible thermal damage to its battery, forcing it to rely only on power generated from its solar arrays and prompting AT&T to request the spacecraft be decommissioned before February 25, 2020, to prevent the risk of the spacecraft exploding. The satellite was moved into a graveyard orbit above the geostationary orbit and was announced as decommissioned on February 14, 2020. == References ==