en AMC-6

AMC-6
Names	GE-6 (1997-2001); AMC-6 (2001-present); Rainbow 2 (2004-present)
Mission type	Communications
Operator	GE Americom (2000-2001); SES Americom (2001-2009); SES World Skies (2009-2011); SES (2011-present)
COSPAR ID	2000-067A
SATCAT no.	26580
Website	AMC-6 website
Mission duration	15 years (planned); 24 years, 1 month, 8 days (elapsed)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	GE-6
Bus	A2100AX
Manufacturer	Lockheed Martin
Launch mass	3,909 kg (8,618 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	21 October 2000, 22:00:00 UTC
Rocket	Proton-K / DM3
Launch site	Baikonur, Site 81/23
Contractor	Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Geostationary orbit
Longitude	72° West
Transponders
Band	52 transponders:; 24 C-band; 28 Ku-band
Frequency	36 MHz; 72 MHz (4 Ku-band)
Coverage area	North America, Greenland, Latin America
	SES constellation ← AMC-5 AMC-7 →

AMC-6, formerly GE-6, is a commercial broadcast communications satellite owned by SES Launched on 21 October 2000, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, AMC-6 became the fifth hybrid C-band / Ku-band satellite in the GE Americom fleet. The satellite provides coverage to the continental United States, Canada, the Caribbean islands, southern Greenland, and Latin America. Located in a geostationary orbit parallel to the eastern United States coastline, AMC-6 provides service to commercial and government customers, and is used as an Internet platform due to its wide coverage, scale and redundancy. Some of its capabilities include Very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) networking, satellite news gathering and Ku-band transceiver service.^[5] Launched as GE-6, it was renamed AMC-6 when SES took over GE Americom in 2001, forming SES Americom. This merged with SES New Skies in 2009 to form SES World Skies.^[6]

Rainbow 2

Rainbow Media announced in November 2004, that it will utilize 16 transponders on the AMC-6 satellite, which VOOM refers to as Rainbow 2.^[3]

^ ^a ^b "Display: GE 6 2000-067A". NASA. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "Satellite Manufacturing Special - The time factor" (PDF). Satellite Evolution. September–October 2004. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Krebs, Gunter (12 April 2019). "GE 4, 6 / AMC 4, 6 / Rainbow 2". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
^ "AMC-6 (GE-6)". N2YO.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Satellite Data". SES World Skies. Archived from the original on 5 June 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
^ "SES Americom-New Skies Satellite Division Re-Brands as SES World Skies". Reuters. 7 September 2009. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2012.