Tomorrow is the 50 the anniversary of the launch of a groundbreaking and Emmy award winning Canadian communications satellite, the Communications Technology Satellite (CTS), known as Hermes.
The satellite was announced on April 20, 1971 as a joint mission between Canada’s Department of Communications and NASA. It was manufactured by the Communications Research Centre Canada and was launched on January 17, 1976. At the time it was “the most powerful communications satellite of its day” a reader noted in bringing this milestone anniversary to our attention.
Canada designed and manufactured the satellite, while partner NASA tested, launched and operated the satellite. The European Space Agency was also a partner providing the 1200 watts solar panels.
The reader also said that Hermes “pioneered the era of direct-to-home TV to pizza sized dish antennas. It was the first 3-axis stabilized communications satellite in GEO – which quickly became the standard design configuration for all commercial GEO satcoms. The program also played a major role in the development of the Canadian space industry by transferring space technology from a government lab (Communications Research Centre) to Canadian industries. Indeed, many of the component parts of MDA Space can trace their beginnings back to the CTS Program.
Here is a list of some of the “firsts” achieved by CTS:
- The most powerful communications satellite ever when it was launched. It had a 200W transmitter tube (when the norm at the time was 20W) powered by a 1 KW solar array
- The first 3-axis stabilized satellite in GEO (Anik B followed quickly on CTS’s heels when it was launched in 1978).
- The first GEO ComSat to to use a large deployable sun tracking solar array (Anik B did the same) which allowed 100% of the solar cells to be pointing at the sun all the time (more efficient than the traditional spin stabilized satellites where only 33% of the cells are pointing at the sun at any given time)
- The first GEO ComSat to be launched with spin stabilization and transformed into 3-axis stabilization when in GEO (cheaper launchers required)
- First SatCom to use the new 12/14 Ghz band (up until then, all GEO ComSats used the 4/6 Ghz bands which was becoming saturated)
- The first to use Field Effect transistors in space, reducing the noise level in its receivers allowing small portable uplink to the satellite (important for most emergency applications)
Our reader added, “The CTS program was the key ingredient of a comprehensive space industrial strategy that led to the development in Canadian industry of the capability to prime contract complete satellite systems, supported by a Canadian industrial supply chain from coast to coast. This gave Canadian industry the capability and credibility to supply ComSats to Telesat Canada (ANIK D) and to Brazil and arguably the CANADARM for the Shuttle Program. The program also created the David Florida Lab which over time has become essential in support of the Canadian space industry.”
Hermes was designed for a two-year life and was used for many experiments until November 1979.
A short history of Hermes was posted on YouTube five years ago and provides a good overview the mission and its place in Canadian history.
