On October the 29th 2019, Thales Alenia Space has signed a letter of agreement with Eutelast Communications for the construction of the Eutelast-10B, an all-electric satellite.
This satellite will replace the geostationary satellite Eutelast-10A roughly which will retire in the second quarter of 2023. Eutelast Communications said that the satellite Eutelast-10B will be built on the Spacebus NEO platform which have been developed with the European and French Space agencies. The launch of the satellite is expected by 2023, nevertheless the launch provider has not been announced yet.
This new satellite will cover Europe, Middle East and Africa. It will address high-throughput services (HTS) covering air and sea routes from the North Atlantic to the Middle East, and another that covers the Indian Ocean, Africa and a larger part of the Atlantic Ocean. Eutelast-10B will have a 35 gigabits per second’s capacity.
The HTS will allow the company Euteleast Communications to access new markets and consequently new customers, delivering high capacity Ku Band mobility services in Maritime and Aviation. The satellite will be supported by a 14 kilowatts digital payload. At the heart of this one will be integrated a Thales Alenia Space SpaceFlex™ VHTS Processor of 5th generation.
Thales Alenia Space
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%). With more than 40 years, the company focuses in delivering cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Their clients are governments but also private industries.
The company counts 8,000 employees in nine countries and generate a 2.5 billion euros in 2018.
In September, the Thales Alenia Space unveiled a new reprogrammable satellite, called Inspire, to face the weak demand of geostationary communications satellites. Jean-Loïc Galle, CEO of Thales Alenia Space, said that three Inspire satellites can launch on the same rocket, enabling cost savings on getting to orbit. This satellite will have a mass of approximately 2,000 kilograms. The company is expecting to build 6 Inspire satellites a year.
This year, 13 geostationary satellites have been ordered worldwide since the beginning of the year.