Instead of doing the planned retro burn at that time, Hughes' mission controllers fired the satellite's motor for a shorter period of time, allowing the satellite to glide into a looping 15-day orbit. An additional small burn on June 1 will send the satellite toward its second lunar encounter. A second lunar flyby will make the orbit even better and will increase the satellite's attractiveness to potential customers. We do not plan any additional lunar maneuvers since additional passes will result in diminishing improvements. When the satellite was sent into space last Christmas, the launch vehicle malfunctioned and left the spacecraft in an unusable, highly elliptical orbit.
Most communications satellites operate from a circular orbit around the equator.
By sending the satellite around the moon, Hughes used lunar gravity to improve the resulting orbit once the satellite returned to Earth. When HGS obtained title to the satellite last month, it agreed to try to find revenue-producing uses for the satellite and to share profits with the insurers. A consortium of 27 insurers had owned the satellite after the original mission was declared a total loss. HGS' primary business is packaging satellite communications services for governmental entities, although it is actively seeking commercial interest in the entire satellite as well. So we challenged them to evaluate whether we could improve the orbit further.