Thales-Alenia win Hispasat contract
January 13, 2020
Hispasat has ordered its latest satellite, Amazonas Nexus, from Thales Alenia Space. The craft is said by Thales to be the first of a new generation of satellites with an innovative architecture and higher capacity.
“The new satellite embarks a new generation Digital Transparent Processor (DTP), a technological breakthrough that substantially increases the flexibility of the satellite, allowing its adaptation to eventual changes in the customer’s demand,” said Hispasat.
The satellite will launch during the second-half of 2022 and have a design life of 15 years.
The Amazonas Nexus satellite, which will replace and expand the capacities of its Amazonas 2 satellite, in orbit at 61º West. The contract was signed on January 10th in Madrid, with Thales Alenia Space winning the award against an international field of competitors.
Amazonas Nexus features, as its new feature, a new generation Digital Transparent Processor (DTP), a technological breakthrough that is essential to increase the geographical flexibility of the mission to respond to eventual evolutions with respect to the initially envisaged commercial scenario.
The DTP function means the satellite payload will be digitally processed allowing to assign in-orbit the required capacities at any time, providing the satellite with great resilience to the evolution of the communications market, both in the field of connectivity and data and in the field of contents transmission.
The advanced design, HTS capacity and versatility of Amazonas Nexus will make it the most efficient satellite in Hispasat’s fleet.
The new satellite will have coverage over the whole American continent, the North Atlantic corridor (for air and maritime traffic area) and Greenland, and will enable the provision of leading-edge telecoms services in Ku-band. Amazonas Nexus marks the start of a new generation of satellites in Hispasat’s fleet with an innovative architecture that also features Ka-band capacity to optimise communications between the ground-based gateways and the satellite, allowing the craft to multiply the total on-board capacity available for commercial use, thus improving to a great extent the capacity unitary cost with respect to conventional satellites.
After the contract signing, Rosario Martínez, President of Hispasat, thanked the support of its new shareholder, Red Eléctrica for its support which will boost the growth of Hispasat. “This project, which is of great relevance to respond to the continuous growth in the demand for connectivity, would not have been possible without the determined support of Hispasat,” she said.