Telesat, incorporated as a satellite operator by an Act of the Canadian Parliament in 1969, is looking to build upon several decades of experience with hosted payloads by putting at least one of them on each of the four satellites that the company now has under construction.
Telesat, which will place a Canadian Ka-band payload on the planned ViaSat-1 satellite, also has lined up a military communications X-band payload for its new Anik G1 satellite. The latter arrangement, in which Telesat will offer the first commercial X-band coverage over the Americas and a large part of the Pacific, shows that the company is pursuing hosted payloads aggressively.
The three-transponder, X-band payload on the Anik G1 has been fully contracted in a 15-year lease by Paradigm Services, a part of Astrium Services’ Telecoms Division that provides commercial military satellite communications. The Anik G1 is worth highlighting because it is expected to become a multipurpose satellite that will operate in geostationary orbit at 107.3 West, following its scheduled launch in the second half of 2012.
Aside from its X-band payload, the Anik G1 will feature 16 extended Ku-band transponders intended to serve Canada for the life of the satellite under a lease with Shaw Direct, a direct-to-home satellite television services provider in Canada. The combined military-commercial payload shows how cobbling together different customers for a single satellite can justify a bird’s launch and business case. Also in the planning stage are other new Telesat satellites, each of which could support a hosted payload.
Such payloads could include: navigation through a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), military satellite communications via Ka-band, space situational awareness, earth observation, scientific and technology demonstration. Company officials envision many opportunities for government customers in North America and worldwide to work with them to place hosted payloads on future satellites.
“Hosted payloads on commercial satellites will continue to offer the military and governments the least cost and shortest implementation schedule to space-based capabilities,” said Paul Bush, a Telesat vice president. “We are working with customers in North America and overseas to include a hosted payload on each of our new satellites.”
Telesat, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, is a privately held satellite operator that provides secure satellite-delivered communications worldwide to broadcast, telecom, corporate and government customers through a fleet of 12 satellites. Among the four additional satellites that the company currently has under construction is a Canadian payload on ViaSat-1. Space Systems/Loral is the manufacturer of the ViaSat-1, which is expected to be launched this summer.
The Canadian payload on the ViaSat-1 is designed to enhance high-speed broadband capacity, quality and availability to Canada, especially in rural areas not served by terrestrial communications.
Company officials trumpet Telesat’s legacy as a technical innovator that dates back nearly 50 years to the 1960s, when the Telstar 1 satellite was launched to deliver the first live, intercontinental satellite TV transmission. In the 1970s, Anik A1 became the first commercially operated domestic satellite in geostationary orbit, Telesat officials added. As far as notable experience with hosted payloads, Telesat cited the following examples:
- 1978 – When Ku-band was still experimental, Anik B had a governmental Ku-band payload to test DTH and transportable services;
- 2002 – In the early days of Ka-band, Nimiq 2 deployed a hosted Ka-band payload with the primary purpose of developing/testing two-way Internet via satellite;
- 2004 – Anik F2 launched and carried a Ka-band, on-board processor for the Canadian Space Agency to become what company officials describe as the world’s first satellite to commercialize Ka-band successfully for two-way, high-speed broadband services;
- 2005 – Anik F1R carried an L-band WAAS payload for the FAA that provides enhanced GPS for aviation. Telesat originally was 53.7% owned by the Canadian government and the remainder by a consortium of Canadian telecommunications carriers.
In 1992, the government sold its majority stake in Telesat to Alouette Telecommunications Inc, a consortium of Canadian telephone companies and Spar Aerospace Ltd.In 1998, Telesat’s then-majority owner, Bell Canada Enterprises Inc (BCE), increased its stake in the satellite operator to 100% by acquiring all outstanding common shares in Alouette Telecommunications. Telesat now principally is owned by Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL).
Paul Dykewicz is a seasoned satellite industry journalist who has covered the development of satellite television, satellite radio, satellite broadband and hosted payloads.
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