Launch Date November 21, 2000 Lifetime 15 year | Launch Mass 4710 kg | |
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Orbit Mass 3,015 kilograms (6,647 lb) | ||
The Anik satellites are a series of geostationary communications satellites launched by Telesat Canada for television in Canada, from 1972 through 2013. Some of the later satellites in the series remain operational in orbit, while others have been retired and are derelict. The naming of the satellite was determined by a national contest, and was won by Julie-Frances Czapla of St. Leonard, Quebec. In Inuktitut, Anik means "little brother".
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Anik A
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.) The Anik A fleet of 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.
Anik B
The Anik B satellite had twelve C-band transponders like the Anik As, with an additional six Ku band transponders.
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 feed, CBC Parliamentary Television Network, CITV-TV Edmonton, CHCH Hamilton, and TVOntario.
CNCP Telecommunications 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.
Anik C
The Anik C satellite series was three times more powerful than the Anik A series. They each had sixteen Ku band transponders.
Anik C-3 was used to distribute Canada's first pay television networks -- First Choice, Superchannel, C-Channel, Star Channel, AIM Pay-TV since February 1983.
Anik C-3 transponder lineup (1983):
Anik D
Anik D1 & D2 series C-Band satellites were launched in 1982 and 1984. They were based on the Hughes 376 design.
Anik E
Anik E1 & E2 were launched in the early 1990s to replace Anik D1 & D2. Unlike the cylinder-shaped satellites of the D-series, these were regular type satellites, but newer generation.
Anik E2 experienced an anomaly during deployment of its C-band antenna, which was successfully deployed after several corrective maneuvers.
On Thursday, January 20, 1994, Anik E1 and E2 suffered problems due to solar activity. E1 failed first at 12:50 (EST), knocking out satellite-delivered television signals in Canada. After a few hours, Telesat managed to restore normal functions on E1 at 20:15 EST. At 21:00 EST, E2 failed, as the gyroscope that helps keep the satellite positioned correctly had caused the signals not to point towards Earth. The exact problem lay with the circuitry having to do with the stabilizing momentum wheel. E2 was not restored to service for five months; users had to relocate services to 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 E2 by constructing special earth stations at each end of the country to monitor the satellite's position, and using its control jets to finely position the satellite, but this shortened the satellite's lifetime as the fuel was intended for much less frequent adjustments along its geostationary orbit.
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.
Anik F1
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 Guiana Space Centre 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 by Telesat, a Canadian communications company. The primary customers are the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Shaw Direct, CHUM Limited and Canadian Satellite Communications 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 [2]. Anik F1R also carries a GPS/WAAS payload.
Anik F2
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- and Ku-band technologies. It is the fifteenth satellite to be launched by Telesat.
With its use of Ka band technology, low-cost two-way satellite delivery will be available for wireless broadband Internet connections, telemedicine, teleteaching, teleworking and e-commerce in the most remote regions of Canada.
On October 6, 2011 starting around 6:30 am 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. Some hospitals in Quebec reported an outage in their communications systems as a result of the satellite outage. The anomly 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.
On October 2, 2016 at approximately 5:00 pm 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.
Anik F3
According to SatNews Publishers, Anik F3 is a 4,634-kilogram (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. 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 [formerly Dish Network] 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
The launch of G1 was announced by Telesat on April 16, 2013.
Anik G1 is a multi-mission satellite with three different payloads that will 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 over the Americas and the Pacific Ocean including Hawaii. The satellite will be positioned at 107.3 degrees West longitude where it will be co-located with Telesat’s Anik F1 satellite, doubling both the C-band and Ku-band transponders serving South America from the 107.3 degrees West orbital location.