Thor (previously known as Marcopolo) is a family of

satellites A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

designed, launched and tested by Hughes Space and Communications (now part of

Boeing Satellite Systems The Boeing Satellite Development Center is a major business unit of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. It brought together Boeing satellite operations with that of GM Hughes Electronics' Space and Communications division in El Segundo, Califo ...

) for

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

(BSB), and were used for

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

's Direct Broadcast Service. 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 worldwi ...

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

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

rocket, and Marcopolo 2 launched on 17 August 1990, on a Delta II rocket. Both satellites were based on the HS-376 satellite bus. Although the satellites performed as designed, BSB merged with Sky Television to form

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers a ...

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)

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 five K_u band transponders.

Marcopolo 2 (Thor 1)

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

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

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 is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. 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 three 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 an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

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. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, and parts of

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

. 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)

Intelsat 10-02 was launched on 16 June 2004, located at 1°W, and was beamed toward

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

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 built by Thales Alenia Space 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. It was successfully launched by

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

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 2 presentation

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