The Anik satellites are a series of geostationary communications satellites launched for Telesat Canada for television, voice and data in Canada and other parts of the world, from 1972 through 2013. Some of the later satellites in the series remain operational in orbit, while others have been retired to a graveyard orbit. The naming of the satellite was determined by a national contest, and was won by Julie-Frances Czapla of Saint-Léonard, Québec. [1] In Inuktitut, Anik means "brother". [2] [3]
| Name | Satellite type | Launched | Retired | Launch vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anik A1 | Hughes Aircraft HS-333 | November 9, 1972 | July 15, 1982 | Delta 1914 |
| Anik A2 | Hughes Aircraft HS-333 | April 20, 1973 | October 6, 1982 | Delta 1914 |
| Anik A3 | Hughes Aircraft HS-333 | May 7, 1975 | November 21, 1984 | Delta 2914 |
| Anik B1 | RCA Astro Satcom | December 15, 1978 [4] | December 1, 1986 | Delta 3914 |
| Anik C1 | Hughes Aircraft HS-376 | April 12, 1985 | May 5, 2003 | Space Shuttle Discovery |
| Anik C2 | Hughes Aircraft HS-376 | June 18, 1983 | January 7, 1998 | Space Shuttle Challenger |
| Anik C3 | Hughes Aircraft HS-376 | November 11, 1982 | June 18, 1997 | Space Shuttle Columbia |
| Anik D1 | Hughes Aircraft HS-376 | August 26, 1982 | December 16, 1991 | Delta 3920 |
| Anik D2 | Hughes Aircraft HS-376 | November 8, 1984 | January 31, 1995 | Space Shuttle Discovery |
| Anik E1 | GE Astro 5000 | September 26, 1991 | January 18, 2005 [5] | Ariane 44P |
| Anik E2 | GE Astro 5000 | April 4, 1991 | November 23, 2005 [5] | Ariane 44P |
| Anik F1 | HS 702 | November 21, 2000 | Still in use | Ariane 44L |
| Anik F2 | Boeing 702 | July 17, 2004 | Still in use | Ariane 5 G |
| Anik F1R | Eurostar E3000 | September 9, 2005 | Still in use | Proton M / Briz-M |
| Anik F3 | Eurostar E3000 | April 10, 2007 | Still in use | Proton M / Briz-M |
| Anik G1 | SSL 1300 [6] | April 16, 2013 | Still in use | Proton M / Briz-M |
The Anik A satellites were the world's first national domestic satellites. (Prior to Anik A1's launch, all geosynchronous communications satellites were transcontinental, i.e. Intelsat I and others.) [7] The Anik A fleet of three satellites gave CBC the ability to reach the Canadian North for the first time. Each of the satellites was equipped with 12 C-band transponders, and thus had the capacity for 12 colour television channels. Three channels were allocated for CBC, two to TCTS and CNCP Telecommunications, two to Bell Canada, one for Canadian Overseas Telecommunications. Two channels were to put on reserve and the remaining two were unallocated (future use). [8] [9]
It was launched on December 15, 1978, and was the successor to the Anik A series and Hermes (aka Communications Technology Satellite, or CTS) experimental satellite. Most of the transponders were devoted to CBC Television — East and West feeds of CBC North, CBC Parliamentary Television Network, CITV-TV Edmonton, CHCH Hamilton, and TVOntario.
CNCP Telecommunications [10] also used Anik B as a relay for its services. The Globe and Mail used Anik B to transmit copy to printing plants across Canada. [11]
The Anik C satellite series tripled the power output of the Anik A series. Anik C also allowed a significant increase in telecommunications capacity over Anik A. Each Anik C satellite had sixteen Ku-band transponders. [12]
Anik C3 was used to distribute Canada's first pay television networks -- First Choice, Superchannel, C-Channel, Star Channel, AIM Pay-TV since February 1983.
Anik C3 transponder lineup (1983):
Anik D1 and Anik D2 series C-Band satellites were launched in 1982 and 1984. They were based on the HS-376 of Hughes design.
Anik E1 and Anik E2 were launched in the early 1990s to replace Anik D1 and Anik D2. Unlike the cylinder-shaped spin-stabilised satellites of the D-series, these were cubical, 3-axis satellites using momentum wheels for attitude stabilisation.
Anik E2 experienced an anomaly during deployment of its C-band antenna, which was successfully deployed after several corrective maneuvers. [13]
On Thursday, January 20, 1994, Anik E1 and Anik E2 suffered problems due to solar activity. Anik E1 failed first at 17:50 UTC, knocking out satellite-delivered television signals in Canada. After a few hours, Telesat managed to restore normal functions on Anik E1 at 00:15 UTC, on 21 January 1994. At 01:00 UTC, both the primary and redundant Anik E2 momentum wheels failed, thus eliminating the gyroscope effect that helps keep the satellite pointed correctly towards Earth. The exact problem lay with the circuitry having to do with the stabilizing momentum wheel. [14] Anik E2 was not restored to service for five months; users had to relocate services to Anik E1 and reposition satellite dishes; for some users, such as Northwestel in northern Canada, it meant days of flying technicians from one community to another to reposition the dishes.
Telesat ultimately restored Anik E2 by constructing special earth stations at each end of the country to monitor the satellite's position, and designed specialised software to use a combination of its control jets and magnetic torquing coils to finely position the satellite. Even though a small amount of extra stationkeeping fuel was needed for pitch control, the efficiencies from using the magnetic coils for roll-yaw adjustment compensated for fuel usage that would have been used in those axes, so there was an insignificant overall effect on fuel use throughout the life of the satellite. The Anik E2 satellite continued to provide full service for 14 years; two years longer than its design life of 12 years.
On March 26, 1996, another catastrophic failure occurred. A critical diode on Anik E1's solar panel shorted out, causing a permanent loss of half the satellite's power. [15]
Anik F1 is a Canadian geosynchronous communications satellite that was launched on November 21, 2000, by an Ariane 4 rocket from the European Space Agency Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou. At the moment of its launch it was the most powerful communications satellite ever built. It has an advanced xenon ion thruster propulsion system and its communication "footprint" covers Central America as well as North America.
It was launched for Telesat Canada, a Canadian communications company. The primary customers are the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Shaw Direct, CHUM Limited and Canadian Satellite Communications Inc., and Bell Canada Enterprise Inc.
The solar panels of Anik F1 degraded more rapidly than expected, and a replacement Anik F1R was launched in 2005, with Anik F1 switching to serving only South America . Anik F1R also carries a GPS/WAAS payload in addition to the C-band and Ku-band transponders. The GPS /WAAS Payload was disabled on May 15, 2022, in concert with the activation of Galaxy XV.
At 5,900 kilograms (13,000 lb), it is more than ten times the size of Anik A2 and is one of the largest, most powerful communications satellites ever built. Anik F2 is a Boeing 702-series satellite, designed to support and enhance current North American voice, data, and broadcast services with its C-Band and Ku-band technologies. It is the fifteenth satellite to be launched by Telesat Canada.
With its use of Ka band technology, low-cost two-way satellite delivery will be available for wireless Internet access connections, telehealth, distance education, remote work applications, and e-commerce in the most remote regions of Canada.
On October 6, 2011, starting around 06:30 EST a "technical" anomaly caused the satellite to point away from the Earth causing an outage in Internet, telephone and bank machine connectivity throughout much of Canada's northern areas. The outage also affected flights in the region. [16] [17] [18] Some hospitals in Québec reported an outage in their communications systems as a result of the satellite outage. [19] The anomaly was caused when the satellite did not respond well to a software update. As it failed, it turned away from the Earth and positioned itself towards the Sun in order to keep critical systems running. This was Anik F2's first outage. The event caused the Canadian military's research arm, Defence Research and Development Canada, to start considering satellites as critical infrastructure systems and to invest in research to develop innovations that will help protect Canadian satellites from failures. [20]
On October 2, 2016, at approximately 17:00 EDT, another malfunction with Anik F2 resulted in a loss of Northwestel's long distance and cellular service, Xplornet and some of SSI Micro Internet, and some TV signals for Shaw Direct Satellite TV. [21] [22]
Anik F2 has lost two of its four thrusters. As a result, continued operation uses significantly more fuel. Telesat has announced [23] that it is acquiring an in-orbit satellite to replace Anik F2. An FCC filing by Telesat has since revealed [24] that the company is buying AMC-11 from SES. Once the FCC has issued its permit, Telesat can take over AMC-11 and move it to 111.1° West. It will be renamed Anik F4.
According to SatNews Publishers, Anik F3 is a 4,634 kilograms (10,216 lb) broadcasting and telecommunications satellite which will provide direct-to-home television in the United States, broadband Internet and telecommunications for Bell Canada, and broadcast TV in northern and other remote areas of Canada. [25] It was built by EADS Astrium and launched on a Proton-M rocket. It was successfully placed into orbit by International Launch Services, who also launched Anik F1R, Nimiq 1 and Nimiq 2.
However, previous to launch, it was announced that Dish would be leasing the entire capacity of Anik F3 for its entire estimated life of approximately 15 years. Today, Anik F3 is used by Dish to beam its "international" foreign language channel offerings. A slightly larger reflector provided by Dish to its customers is required to receive the weaker (as compared to the stronger Ku DBS band used by Dish and DirecTV as their primary satellites) Ku FSS band reliably. Also, Dish uses a specially designed "combo" LNB that houses both elements necessary to receive Dish services from both 118 and 119 taking the space of only a single LNB. The combo LNB is also available part of a single LNBF unit that can also receive additional Dish programming at 110 and 129 satellite locations for reception of Dish's entire Western Arc constellation of satellites providing both SD and HD content. Dish does not produce any 118 only LNBF's for its systems, only the combo 118/119 by itself or as part of a single unit that also receives other Dish satellites.
Anik G1 was launched on April 16, 2013, by a Proton-M from Baikonur Cosmodrome for Telesat. [26]
Anik G1 is a multi-mission satellite manufactured by Space Systems/Loral on its LS1300E platform. It has three payloads that provide direct-to-home (DTH) television service in Canada, as well as broadband, voice, data, and video services in South America where economic growth has driven high demand for satellite services. It is also the first commercial satellite with a substantial X-band payload, for government communications from 178˚W to 35˚W covering the Americas and the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii. The satellite is positioned at 107.3° West longitude where it is co-located with Telesat's Anik F1 satellite, doubling both the C-band and Ku-band transponders serving South America. [27] [28]
The Anik G1 X-band capacity was leased to the operators of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Skynet system, helping Skynet expand to near global coverage. [29] [28]
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. Communications satellites are used for television, telephone, radio, internet, and military applications. Many communications satellites are in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles (35,785 km) above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky; therefore the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be aimed permanently at that spot and do not have to move to track the satellite. Others form satellite constellations in low Earth orbit, where antennas on the ground have to follow the position of the satellites and switch between satellites frequently.
The Ku band is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under", because it is the lower part of the original NATO K band, which was split into three bands because of the presence of the atmospheric water vapor resonance peak at 22.24 GHz, (1.35 cm) which made the center unusable for long range transmission. In radar applications, it ranges from 12 to 18 GHz according to the formal definition of radar frequency band nomenclature in IEEE Standard 521–2002.
Shaw Direct G.P. is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Rogers Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two communications satellites: Anik G1 at 107.3°W, and Anik F2 at 111.1°W. Anik F1R, which had been in service for 15 years, reached its end of life in the latter part of 2020, when the services on this satellite were migrated between the remaining two. These satellites are owned by Telesat Canada and otherwise are used primarily to distribute programming to various Canadian cable TV companies. The company was formerly known as Star Choice until April 15, 2009.
Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa.
Apstar 6 is a communications satellite built by Alcatel Space, a subsidiary of Alcatel, and was boosted into orbit on April 12, 2005, by Long March 3B launcher from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. It provides APT Satellite, a satellite operator in the Asia Pacific region, with broadband media and television services. It is fitted with 38 C-band transponders and 12 Ku band transponders. China is covered with a dedicated high power Ku band beam for broadband multimedia transmission. It is the second model of the Spacebus 4000. The transponders have a reduced C-band receiving dish over a wide footprint, which extends across India, China and Australia.
This is a list of the satellites operated by Optus, an Australian telecommunications company. The satellite communications facility is located at Belrose on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Optus' satellites are divided into 4 classes A, B, C and D. As of April 2014 it owns and operates Optus B3, Optus C1, Optus D1, Optus D2 and Optus D3. Optus A1, Optus A2, Optus A3 and Optus B1 satellites have been retired. Optus has the largest network of satellites in Australia and New Zealand.
The Nimiq satellites are a Canadian fleet of geostationary telecommunications satellites owned by Telesat and used by satellite television providers including Bell Satellite TV and EchoStar. 'Nimiq' is an Inuit word used for an object or a force which binds things together. A contest in 1998 was held to choose the name of these satellites. The contest drew over 36,000 entries. Sheila Rogers, a physiotherapist from Nepean, Ontario, submitted the winning name.
Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 18,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Astrium was a member of Institute of Space, its Applications and Technologies.
The Eurostar E3000 is a generic satellite model most commonly used for commercial and military communications satellites manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space. It is a member of Airbus Defence and Space's Eurostar family. It utilises a chemical, bi-propellant propulsion system for orbit raising and on-station manoeuvres with an optional plasma propulsion system (PPS). The PPS harnesses the Newtonian effect as a result of the ionisation of xenon gas employed by the use of Hall effect plasma thrusters. This system is most commonly used for north–south station-keeping. The E3000 was the first commercial satellite family to use lithium–ion batteries rather than the older nickel-based technologies for power supply during eclipses.
AMC-11 , previously GE-11, is an American geostationary communications satellite which is operated by SES. It is currently positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 131° West, from where it is used to relay cable television across North America for onward distribution. It broadcasts to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States.
Paksat-1,, was a geosynchronous and communications satellite built and owned by the Boeing Company, leased to the Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and renamed Paksat-1. It was successfully put on orbit on 1 February 1996 as Palapa-C1 for Indonesia as its original customer. But, after the technical problems, the satellite was leased to SUPARCO at an orbital location of 38° East longitude in December 2002. Paksat-1 offers the C-band and Ku-band coverage in over 75 countries across Europe, Africa, Middle East, South and Central Asia. Its customers included government organizations, television broadcasters, telecommunications companies, data and broadband internet service providers.
Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.
The DirecTV satellite fleet is a group of communications satellites located at various geostationary orbits that DirecTV uses for their satellite television service and HughesNet internet service. The "DirecTV" prefix in their names has been changed to "T".
Marisat satellites were the first mobile telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S. Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean regions. The three Marisat satellites, F1, F2, and F3, were built by Hughes Aircraft Corporation (HAC) for COMSAT Corporation starting in 1973. The satellites were designed to provide maritime telecommunications services in three large ocean areas, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean, and were located at 72.5° East longitude, 176.5° E, and 345° E in the geosynchronous orbital arc. The three-satellite Marisat system served as the initial INMARSAT constellation.
Hot Bird 13C, formerly Hot Bird 9, is a communications satellite operated by Eutelsat, launched 20 December 2008 aboard an Ariane 5ECA carrier rocket along with the Eutelsat W2M spacecraft. It was built by EADS Astrium, based on a Eurostar E3000 satellite bus. It was positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 13°E. After in-orbit testing it will provide communications services to Asia, Europe, Americas, North Africa and the Middle East, with 64 NATO J-band transponders.
Nimiq-5 is a Canadian communications satellite, operated by Telesat Canada as part of its Nimiq fleet of satellites. It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 72.7° West of the Greenwich Meridian. As of July 2015, EchoStar Corporation leases the satellite's entire capacity to provide high-definition television direct-to-home broadcasting for Dish Network Corporation. When accessed using a multi-satellite receiver such as the VIP722k and a multi-satellite dish/LNB combo, such as the Dish-300, Dish-500, or Dish-Turbo 1000.4, the satellite is referred to by the on-screen diagnostics as Echostar 72 W.
Galaxy 15 is an American telecommunications satellite which is owned by Intelsat. It was launched for and originally operated by PanAmSat, and was subsequently transferred to Intelsat when the two companies merged in 2006. It was originally positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 133° West, from where it was used to provide communication services to North America.
Galaxy 25 (G-25) launched in 1997, contracted by International Launch Services (ILS), formerly known as Intelsat Americas 5 (IA-5) until 15 February 2007 when it was renamed as result of the merger between owner Intelsat and PanAmSat for Telstar 5, is a medium-powered communications satellite formerly in a geostationary orbit at 97° West, above a point in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of the Galapagos Islands. It was manufactured by Space Systems/Loral using its LS-1300 satellite bus and is currently owned and operated by Intelsat. The satellite's main C-band transponder cluster covers the United States, Canada, and Mexico; its main Ku-band transponder cluster covers the United States, Mexico, and the Northern Caribbean Sea. An additional C-band and a Ku-band transponder pair targets Hawaii.
Intelsat 702 is a geostationary communication satellite that was built by Space Systems/Loral (SSL). It is located in the orbital position of 32.9 degrees east longitude and it is currently in an inclined orbit. The satellite is owned by Intelsat. The satellite was based on the Loral FS-1300 platform and its estimated useful life was 15 years.
EUTELSAT II F-1, is a decommissioned communications satellite operated by the European Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (EUTELSAT). Launched in 1990, it was operated in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 13° East, before moving to several other locations later in its operational life, before it was finally decommissioned in 2003.
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