1985.
An Ariane rocket launched from the Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana boosts into orbit the first of two Brazilian satellites to serve the telecommunications needs of that nation.
This is the story of Brasilsat.
I.
The roots of the project go back to 1968, when Hughes Communications International contracted RCA Canada to provide Ground Communications Equipment for Hughes’ Intelsat ‘A’ Earth Station in Tanguá, Brazil. This work was completed in 1969, and follow-on contracts were awarded to RCA throughout the 1970s to update the station as technology evolved.
Intelsat Standard ‘A’ Earth Station in Tanguá, Brazil, 1976.
RCA Limited, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, 1975.
Portrait of João Figueiredo, 1979.
Brazil is a country of 8.8 million square kilometres, the largest country in South America. From 1968 to 1985, Brazil was under a military dictatorship, which reached the height of its popularity in the early 1970s despite human rights abuses, media censorship, and state-sponsored killings. Economic hardship in the mid-1970s led to mass protests. In 1979, João Figueiredo became president, and passed an amnesty law supporting Redemocratization. In 1982, free elections were introduced for the first time in 20 years.
Political map of Brazil, 1981
In 1985, the election of a ruling opposition party marked the end of the dictatorship, and new constitution was ratified in 1988.
II.
In 1977, concurrently to the goings-on in Brazil, Canadian aerospace company Spar Aerospace Limited acquired significant assets of RCA Canada Limited, mainly their Government and Commercial Systems Division and Research Laboratories based out of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and Montréal, Quebec, respectively. This allows Spar to adopt and follow through with contracts previously won by RCA and procure new contracts. Ireal A. (Don) Mayson, who led the operation in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue as Vice-President and General Manager from 1968 until it was acquired by Spar, was instrumental in the smooth management transition from one company to another. Spar Aerospace is best known as the designers and builders of the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System Canadarm for NASA.
Anik A, the worlds first geostationary communication satellite, 1972.
“Canada was the third nation in the world to successfully launch and operate its own satellite. Alouette I was launched in 1962, and Alouette II, ISIS I, and ISIS II followed. All of these were experimental satellites, and were joint projects with NASA.”
- Ireal A. (Don) Mayson
Spar Aerospace advertisement celebrating Canadarm, 1981.
RCA Limited was prime contractor on the Alouette II, ISIS I, ISIS II and Anik B satellites, and a sub-contractor on Anik A. Spar Aerospace Limited was a sub-contractor for Anik C, and 1979 won the prime contract to build Anik D. All of the Anik satellites are communications satellites, and operated by Telesat Canada, a crown corporation from 1969-1998, and Canada’s main telecommunications company today. The need for a domestic communications satellite system in Canada stemmed from the fact that Canada is the second largest nation in the world in terms of size, and needed reliable and domestic control over communications to link Eastern, Western, and Northern communities. Brazil was facing a similar issue.
