Thor (previously known as Marcopolo) is a family of

satellites A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...

designed, launched and tested by

Hughes Space and Communications The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other prod ...

(now part of Boeing Satellite Systems) for

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with ...

(BSB), and were used for Britain's

Direct Broadcast Service Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

. Thor is owned by

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...

. Marcopolo 1 launched on 27 August 1989 on the 187th launch of a

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

rocket, and Marcopolo 2 launched on 17 August 1990, on a Delta II rocket. Marcopolo I had the Hughes designation HS376. Although the satellites performed as designed, BSB 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 The Squarial (a portmanteau of the words ''square (geometry), square'' and ''antenna (radio), aerial'') was a satellite antenna used for reception of the now defunct British Satellite Broadcasting television service (BSB). The Squarial was a flat ...

satellite-reception antenna, which was designed to operate with Thor 1 only.

Marcopolo 1 (Sirius 1/Sirius W)

Sirius W, previously known as Sirius 1, was launched on 27 August 1989. It was

's first satellite. Marcopolo 1 was sold in December 1993 to

Nordic Satellite AB SES Sirius, formerly called Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB) was the owner and operator of the two Sirius satellites, which provide the Nordic countries and the Baltic states, with TV, radio, data and communications solutions. The company is today entir ...

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)

Marcopolo 2 was launched on 18 August 1990. It had 5 K_u band transponders. It was sold in July 1992 to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

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 Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. Marcopolo 2 was sent up to the junk orbit in early January 2003.

Thor 2

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. 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

Thor 3 (the "3" is officially "III") was a

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

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

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

, and parts of

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

. Thor 3 is still in operation and is flying in inclined geostationary orbit but has been pointed towards the middle east. Thor 3 was replaced by Thor 6 in June 2010.

Intelsat 10-02 (Thor 10-02)

Intelsat 10-02 Intelsat 10-02 (or IS 10-02, Intelsat 1002, IS-1002, Intelsat Alpha-2, Intelsat X-02 and Thor 10-02 ) is a communications satellite operated by Intelsat. Intelsat 10-02 is the first operational communications satellite to have its service life ...

was launched on 16 June 2004, located at 1°W, and was beamed toward

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Thor 5

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

Thor 6 was launched from the Guiana Spaceport on 29 October 2009. 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.

Thor 7

Thor 7 has been built by

SSL SSL may refer to: Entertainment * RoboCup Small Size League, robotics football competition * ''Sesame Street Live'', a touring version of the children's television show * StarCraft II StarLeague, a Korean league in the video game Natural language ...

. 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

External links

Thor 3 coverage map

Thor 4 (Intelsat 10-02) coverage map

Thor 5 coverage map

Thor 6 coverage map

Thor 7 coverage map
{{Telenor Communications satellites Telenor Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellite television