PARIS -- Space Systems/Loral will build Telesat Canada's Nimiq 5 direct-broadcast television satellite to be launched in 2009 under a contract announced Jan. 4 - less than a month after Loral agreed to purchase a majority stake in the Canadian satellite-fleet operator.

 

New York-based Loral Space and Communications Chief Executive Michael B. Targoff had told Loral shareholders that the Telesat purchase, which was announced Dec. 18, should give Loral's satellite-manufacturing division a better shot at winning business from Telesat, the world's fourth-largest satellite-fleet operator.

In recent years Ottawa-based Telesat has purchased telecommunications satellites from most of the other U.S. and European satellite builders, and recently become a regular customer for Astrium Satellites of Europe. But Telesat had never purchased a Loral spacecraft.

 

The Nimiq 5 contract serves notice that things may change. In a Jan. 4 statement announcing the Nimiq 5 deal, Telesat Chief Executive Daniel S. Goldberg said: "We look forward to working with [Space Systems/Loral] to expand our satellite fleet and assure a generation of Canadians reliable access to advanced video programming."

 

Nimiq 5's entire payload of 32 Ku-band transponders has been presold to Canadian satellite-television provider Bell ExpressVu. The satellite will be based on Space Systems/Loral's 1300 platform and will be operated from Telesat's 72.5 degrees west orbital position.