Ciel 2

Ciel 2 is the second communications satellite of the Canadian Ciel Satellite Group.

The contract to build the satellites was awarded on 17 March 2006 to Alcatel Alenia Space, the later Thales Alenia Space. Ciel 2 is based on the satellite bus Spacebus 4000 C4 and was then the largest and most advanced satellite of this platform.

The startup 5561 kg, the satellite is equipped with 32 Ku- band transponders with traveling wave tubes and a power of 100 to 200 watts and with a power supply with output of 10.6 kW. He can send its signals to both regional and spot beams. When position control four plasma engines of the model SPT -100 are used.

The satellite was launched on December 10, 2008 by ILS service at 13:43 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a Proton-M/Breeze-M-Trägerrakete and brought 129 ° West to a geostationary orbit with the position.

It supplies thence North America (Canada and USA) with TV offerings in NTSC and HDTV resolution. The main tenant is the pay - TV company Dish Network. Battery life is estimated at 16 years.