Intelsat II F-3, also known as Canary Bird was a

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Ear ...

operated by

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as ...

. Launched in 1967 it was operated in geostationary orbit, spending most of its operational life at a longitude of 15 degrees west. The third of four

Intelsat II Intelsat II was a series of four communications satellites operated by Intelsat which were launched in 1966 and 1967. Built by the Hughes Aircraft Company, the Intelsat II series was a follow-up to the Intelsat I series, of which only one satel ...

satellites to be launched, Intelsat II F-3 was built by

Hughes Aircraft 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 ...

around the

HS-303A HS3 or HS-3 may refer to: Transport * Curtiss HS-3, a patrol flying boat built for the United States Navy during World War I * Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron 3, a United States Navy unit renamed to HSC-9 in 2009 (Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron ...

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus- ...

. It carried two

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

s, which were powered by body-mounted solar cells generating 85 watts of power. The spacecraft had a mass of at launch, decreasing through expenditure of propellant to by the beginning of its operational life. Intelsat II F-3 was launched atop a Delta E1 rocket flying from Launch Complex 17B at the

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the stat ...

. The launch took place at 01:30:12 on March 23, 1967, with the spacecraft entering a

geosynchronous transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step ...

. It fired an SVM-1

apogee motor An apogee kick motor (AKM) is a rocket motor that is regularly employed on artificial satellites to provide the final impulse to change the trajectory from the transfer orbit into its final (most commonly circular) orbit. For a satellite la ...

to place itself into its operational geostationary orbit. The spacecraft was operated at a longitude of 15° west, over the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

. It was briefly relocated to 35° west in 1972, but had returned to 15° west by the following year. It acquired the unofficial nickname ''Canary Bird'' because of the association of the mission with

Maspalomas Station Maspalomas Station is an INTA-operated, ESTRACK radio antenna ground station for communication with spacecraft located at the southern area of Gran Canaria island, on the INTA campus. It is situated on the Montaña Blanca hill and is visible fro ...

, the

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves f ...

which is located in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

. As of February 7, 2014 the derelict Intelsat II F-3 was in an orbit with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ell ...

of , an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any el ...

of ,

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 5.81 degrees and an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of 23.94 hours.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intelsat 203 Intelsat satellites Hughes aircraft Spacecraft launched in 1967 Transatlantic telecommunications