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Anik I was launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 9,
1972, aboard a three-stage Delta 1914 launch vehicle into an initial
highly elliptical orbit which was circularized November 13. It was
gradually moved on station at 114 degrees west longitude by year end.
A cylinder, 75 inches in diameter and 11.6 feet tall, Anik I
weighed 1238 pounds at launch. Its orbit weight was 650 pounds. The
spacecraft was spin-stabilized with despun antenna and feeds. The
control system was redundant hydrazine thrusters with seven-year
station-keeping capability. The power system used solar panels and
batteries with 250 watt minimum, including full 46-day eclipse
capability.
The project objective was to provide commercial
communications via satellite for Canada, which sprawls nearly 4
million square miles.
Anik I was the first spacecraft of a geosynchronous system
owned jointly by the Canadian government and Canadian
telecommunications common carriers. Two spacecraft were to form the
operational system; a third was to be held for possible in-flight
failure or to extend the system. Anik, the Eskimo word for brother,
was the world's first domestic communications satellite system using
geosynchronous orbit.