On this day, 14th August, in 1996 ITALSAT F2 was successfully comissioned in orbit and is remembered by TRAK as the first payload to include flight qualified ferrite Isolators designed and supplied by TRAK in Dundee.
The second spacecraft in the series, F2 was, like F1, designed to provide communications capacity over Italy and allowed the system to become fully operational. In addition to the Regenerative Multibeam and the Transparent 20/30 GHz payloads, ITALSAT F2 included an L-band payload for mobile communications.
TRAK’s contribution included K- and Ka-band waveguide Isolators in WR51 and WR34. These initial waveguide devices have been followed in the subsequent two decades by over 6000 other FMs.