Anik G1 is a telecommunication satellite designed and manufactured by Space Systems/Loral (SSL). The satellite, owned and operated by Telesat, provides communication services covering Canada, the Americas and the Pacific Ocean region.
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Anik G1 was successfully launched into Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) orbit in April 2013. It was launched on a Proton Breeze M rocket from the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan and will be placed at 107.3° West longitude. The satellite will be co-located with Telesat’s Anik F1R satellite, which was launched in November 2000.
Anik G1 will enter into service soon after in-orbit testing. Telesat has a satellite tracking station located at Gnangara in Australia, which received signals from Anik G1about nine hours after its launch. The fleet of Telesat satellites will increase to 14 with the addition of Anik G1.
Satellite development at SSL’s Palo Alto facility
Space Systems/Loral was awarded a contract to design and manufacture Anik G1 in June 2010. The satellite was developed in SSL’s Palo Alto facility in California. The satellite has a mass of about 4,900kg.
It has a designed mission life of more than 15 years. The multiplexers and switches used in the satellite were provided by COM DEV International.
The spacecraft was transported to Baikonur in March 2013. The assembling and pre-launch testing were completed in April 2013.
The satellite uses the FS-1300 platform developed by SS/L. It provides satellite power capabilities ranging between five and 25kW.
Launch vehicle for Telesat’s Anik G1 satellite
The satellite lifted off aboard an ILS Proton Breeze M rocket on 16 April 2013. The rocket was manufactured by Khrunichev. International Launch Services (ILS) was contracted in June 2010 to provide launch services for Anik G1.
The rocket launch consisted of three stages. Six RD-276 engines were used in the first stage. The second stage was powered by three RD-0210 engines, while the third stage was powered by one RD-0213 engine.
The rocket has five engine firings in the upper stage. The satellite was separated from the upper stage rocket after nine hours of lift off. The first stage used about 419.41t of propellants for the lift off, the second stage used 156.113 of propellants and the third stage used about 46.562t of propellants.
The Proton booster used for launching the satellite has 7.4m diameter in the first stage and 4.1m diameter in second and third stages. The height of the booster in the three stages was 42.3m. The satellite launch operations were carried out at Baikonur Cosmodrome launch Pad 39 in Kazakhstan.
Communication capabilities of the Anik G1 telecom satellite
Anik G1 has 55 transponders, which include 24 C-band, 28 Ku-band and 3 X-band transponders. It features 16 extended Ku-band transponders, which were contracted for 15 years to Shaw Direct, a Canadian DTH service provider. The satellite will enable Shaw Direct to offer more than 100 new HD channels to their subscribers across Canada.
X-band transponder services were contracted to Astrium Services for 15 years. The X-band provides support for government applications in the Americas, Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean region. The satellite will also provide broadband, voice, data and video services to the South American region.
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