Telesat Canada, Ottawa has decided that it can’t afford to allow the $300m Anik E2 satellite to tumble out of control and useless and has a plan to put it back in operation within six months: it wants to build a costly ground loop attitude control system to operate the satellite, which lost its momentum wheel when it was hit by a massive solar storm and left pointing out to space; the recovery plan involves firing its thrusters for a few milliseconds every few minutes for the remainder of the satellite’s operating life to keep it properly pointed at the earth and do without the stabilising momentum wheel.
