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Thor (previously known as Marcopolo ) is a family of satellites designed, launched and tested by Hughes Space and Communications (now part of Boeing Satellite Systems ) for British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), and were used for Britain 's Direct Broadcast Service . Thor is owned by Telenor . ^[1] Marcopolo 1 launched on 27 August 1989 on the 187th launch of a Delta rocket, and Marcopolo 2 launched on 17 August 1990, on a Delta II rocket. ^[2] Marcopolo I had the Hughes designation HS376. ^[3]

Although the satellites performed as designed, BSB ^[4] merged with Sky Television to form British Sky Broadcasting and the BSB satellites were sold off and renamed. This also resulted in the obsoletion of the Squarial satellite-reception antenna, which was designed to operate with Thor 1 only.

Marcopolo 1 (Sirius 1/Sirius W) [ edit ]

Sirius W , previously known as Sirius 1, was launched on 27 August 1989. It was Hughes Space and Communications 's first satellite. Marcopolo 1 was sold in December 1993 to Nordic Satellite AB of Sweden and operated until 2000 as Sirius 1 at 5°E. It was then moved to 13°W, and renamed Sirius W. It had 5 K _u band transponders.

Marcopolo 2 (Thor 1) [ edit ]

Marcopolo 2 was launched on 18 August 1990. It had 5 K _u band transponders. It was sold in July 1992 to Telenor of Norway and renamed Thor 1. It was located at 0.8°W. It was switched off in January 2002, and in November of that year it was moved to 7.4°W and reactivated with digital test signals broadcasting toward Scandinavia . Marcopolo 2 was sent up to the junk orbit in early January 2003.

Thor 2 [ edit ]

Thor 2 was launched on 21 May 1997, and retired in 2008 although it remained in an inclined geostationary orbit until January 2013 when it de-orbited to the graveyard orbit. ^[5] It weighs 1467 kg, and has 15 K _u band transponders, with 3 spares, powered by 40-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs).

Thor 3 [ edit ]

Thor 3 (the "3" is officially "III") was a satellite used by Canal Digital in the Nordic areas for DTH services. It launched on 9 June 1998 with an expected lifetime at 12 years, and was located at 0.8°W. It had 14 active K _u band transponders powered by 47-watt traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs). The satellite was targeted on Scandinavia , Eastern Europe , and parts of Central Europe . ^[6] Thor 3 is no longer in operation and was moved to its graveyard orbit in 2019. Thor 3 was replaced by Thor 6 in June 2010.

Intelsat 10-02 (Thor 10-02) [ edit ]

Intelsat 10-02 was launched on 16 June 2004, located at 1°W, and was beamed toward Central Europe and the Middle East . ^[7]

Thor 5 [ edit ]

Thor 5 was launched on 11 February 2008. It was first planned that the satellite would be called Thor 2R', but Telenor named it Thor 5. It has 24 active K _u band transponders.

Thor 6 [ edit ]

Thor 6 was launched from the Guiana Spaceport on 29 October 2009. ^[8] Telenor Satellite Broadcasting announced on 15 December that Thor 6 had completed all necessary in-orbit and ground-related testing and would commence commercial service in late December.

Thor 6 has 36 K _u band transponders. It provides direct-to-home television broadcasting services from the orbital location 0.8°W. It replaced Thor 3. ^[9]

Thor 7 [ edit ]

Thor 7 has been built by SSL . It was successfully launched by Arianespace from Kourou spaceport on 26 April 2015. It will mainly serve maritime customers and have a total capacity of 9 Gbit/s. It was launched in tandem with the Italian/French Sicral 2 defense satellite.

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Thor 3 coverage map
• Thor 4 (Intelsat 10-02) coverage map
• Thor 5 coverage map
• Thor 6 coverage map
• Thor 7 coverage map