Satellite : BellTV Nimiq 4 satellite launches September 19th

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BellTV Nimiq 4 satellite launches September 19th
Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Telesat, the company that launched Anik A1 in 1972, announced today that its Nimiq 4 satellite will launch on Friday September 19th at 5:48 p.m. Eastern time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Nimiq 4 is fully leased to BellTV and will be used by the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television provider to continue to enhance advanced services such as high-definition television, specialty channels and foreign language programming to its 1.8 million customers.

Nimiq 4 was built by EADS Astrium with mission management provided by International Launch Services (ILS). The spacecraft will operate from Telesat's orbital position of 82 degrees West with 32 active high-power transponders in Ku-band and eight in Ka-band. Nimiq 4 has a launch mass of approximately 4850 kg and an expected 15-year mission life.

Nimiq 4 is expected to take over much of the work currently being done by the Nimiq 2 satellite which was launched in December of 2002 but suffered a partial power failure in February 2003 which resulted in only 26 of its 32 Ku-band transponders being functional.