Airbus Defence has landed a deal worth almost £180m from one of the world’s leading satellite operators, France’s Eutelsat, to develop communications for two state-of-the-art satellites.
Components and major parts for the two HOTBIRD next generation satellites will be manufactured in the UK before being sent to Toulouse for final assembly. They will deliver improved performances over the European and Middle-Eastern footprint, reinforced by a powerful European Superbeam.
The HOTBIRD fleet forms one of the largest broadcasting systems in Europe, broadcasting 1000 television channels to more than 135 million homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
The new spacecraft will be based on the Eurostar Neo platform, Airbus’s new geostationary telecommunications satellite standard design, a significant evolution of the highly reliable and successful Eurostar series with an entire range of major innovations. Eurostar Neo combines increased payload capacity and more efficient power and thermal control systems with reduced production time and optimised costs.
The satellites combine electric power of 22 kW with a launch mass of only 4500kg, thanks to the EOR (Electric Orbit Raising) version of the Eurostar Neo platform.
Due to be launched in 2021, they will be the ninth and 10th high power all-electric Eurostar satellites, harnessing multiple electric propulsion thrusters for faster orbit raising and on-station manoeuvres.
The development of Airbus’ Eurostar Neo platform has been supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and space agencies across Europe in the framework of the ARTES-14 programme line led by ESA and CNES.
The news will be welcome for the UK space industry, as Paul Adams, aerospace sector specialist at management consultancy Vendigital said: “This is positive news for the UK space industry at a time when some other projects linked to Galileo are losing ground due to Brexit.
“With a 40% share of the global export market in the manufacture of small satellites and the regulatory framework in place to support commercial spaceflight by 2020, the UK is now in prime position to further its ambitious plan to secure 10 per cent of the global space market by 2030. These bold plans that could deliver a £40 billion boost for the UK economy.”