OTTAWA – Telesat will replace its Telstar 14/Estrela do Sul satellite with a new, state-of-the-art satellite in late 2011.
Space Systems/Loral will design and build the new high powered Ku-band satellite, which will be known as Telstar 14R in most service regions, and as Estrela do Sul 2 in Brazil.
With 58 transponder equivalents (36 MHz), Telstar 14R will have five coverage beams: Brazil, the continental United States (including the Gulf of Mexico and northern Caribbean), the southern cone of South America, the Andean region (including Central America and southern Caribbean), and the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean.
"Telstar 14R, a state-of-the-art satellite, will offer customers a range of important advantages relative to Telstar 14, including significant additional capacity, improved geographic coverage and higher power,” said president and CEO Dan Goldberg, in the announcement. “Like the Telstar 11N satellite that we launched earlier this year, Telstar 14R will be an important addition to Telesat’s international fleet and underscores our strong commitment to our customers and the regions it will serve."
An important advantage of the satellite’s design is that Telesat will have the capability to switch amplifiers to different regions resulting in flexibility to match satellite capacity to market need, the announcement continued.
