spacetoday.net: Astrium wins satellite order

Posted: Wed, Feb 5, 2003, 6:04 AM ET (1104 GMT)
Eurostar 3000 illustration (Astrium)

European satellite manufacturer Astrium has won a contract to build a replacement communications satellite for Telesat Canada. Astrium won the contract to build Anik F1R based on its Eurostar 3000 satellite bus. The four-tonne spacecraft will carry 24 C-band and 32 Ku-band transponders. Anik F1R will replace Anik F1, a Boeing 702 spacecraft launched in late 2000. That spacecraft is suffering from a gradual loss of power because of problems with the concentrators on its solar panel, a problem that has affected several early 702-model spacecraft. The order is the first commercial satellite order announced in 2003, and comes on the heels of a very bad year for the commercial satellite industry in 2002, when there were only between three and seven orders for the entire year.