International Satellite Company (ISC), a subsidiary of Thai satellite operator Thaicom, has entered into a satellite procurement contract with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for a $208 million Ka-band satellite. The subsidiary is buying the satellite on behalf of an unnamed business partner under which the satellite will be licensed and whose orbital slot it will use.
Thaicom said in a press release that the partner will provide the company with advanced service fees that will serve as the source of funding for the construction of the satellite, and that the project is expected to contribute to increased revenue for the operator.
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The satellite is designed to carry 37 GHz of Ka-band capacity, equivalent to 53 Gbps; ISC has already agreed to lease out the entire capacity to a major customer. Once completed around the end of 2019, the satellite is expected to provide broadband and mobility services in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand over its 15-year lifetime.
State-owned CGWIC is the only commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide satellite, commercial launch services and to carry out international space cooperation. Other recent commercial contracts include Apstar 9 for APT Satellite of Honk Kong and Belintersat 1 for the new Belarusian operator Belintersat.
Ooredoo Maldives has reached an agreement with Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) provider Thuraya to supply resorts and fisheries with mobile satellite products and services across the archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The initial phase of the agreement will provision fisheries and anglers with voice products and broadband connectivity over Thuraya’s satellite network.
The Maldives government has issued a mandate requiring commercial fishing operators to fit their vessels with satellite communication equipment and to supply anglers with satellite phones. The goal of the mandate is to boost safety in the fishing industry. By equipping their fishing vessels with Thuraya’s products, operators will have access to monitoring systems and services that address multiple requirements, such as issues of distress and safety.
Ooredoo Maldives is selling Thuraya SatSleeve+ and SatSleeve Hotspot devices, along with data packages at retail outlets and through enterprise account teams. The Thuraya devices augment smartphones to function as satellite phones, enabling connectivity on the move, especially in remote areas where terrestrial networks have become unavailable or unreliable. The devices also come with a programmable SOS button that works even if the smartphone is not connected.
“Traditionally, fish[ing] is the main occupation and major source of livelihood in the Maldives. It is also the second largest industry in the country. Safety is an important driver in this sector, where there are many accidents. It is important to have crew-calling capabilities outside of radio range so fishermen can send alerts when in trouble,” said Ooredoo’s Hussain Niyaz.
The second phase of the agreement, which will come into effect later this year, will target the 105-plus resorts located in the different atolls constituting the Republic of Maldives. In a preemptive and precautionary mandate by the government, all resorts and touristic facilities are required to install satellite communication equipment as an added safety measure for tourists and visitors.
AsiaSat President, CEO and Executive Director William Wade is retiring from his post and assuming a new role as senior advisor, the company announced today. The board of directors at AsiaSat has appointed Andrew Jordan as his successor starting Nov. 1; Wade will continue with AsiaSat as senior advisor until March 31, 2017.
Jordan has more than 25 years of experience in the satellite industry, and was the general manager for AsiaSat’s marketing department from 1991 to 1993. He has held executive positions with several satellite operators, and led complex deal negotiations in Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Space Systems Loral (SSL) has confirmed that Sky Muster 2, the second High Throughput Satellite (HTS) designed and built for Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) has performed post-launch maneuvers according to plan.
The satellite deployed its solar arrays on schedule following its launch aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle on Oct. 6, and began firing its main thruster early the following morning to reach Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). NBN plans to use Sky Muster 2 in conjunction with the first Sky Muster satellite to provide high-speed broadband service to more than 200,000 Australians.
Sky Muster 2 is the second of two twin Ka-band HTS satellites that NBN purchased from SSL and launched with Arianespace. Together, the two satellites provide telecommunications services to Australia’s most difficult to reach citizens, including those in mainland Australia as well as those on offshore islands including Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Lord Howe Island, Cocos, and Macquarie Island in the Antarctic.
Kacific Broadband Satellites, a Singapore-based startup with plans to provide internet connectivity to the Asia-Pacific and Oceania regions, has pre-sold enough of the capacity on its first planned satellite, Kacific 1, that the company is now ready to progress without the support of the U.S. Export Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank). In 2015, Kacific was one of the companies with orders for U.S.-built satellites no longer able to complete a transaction with a manufacturer, in this case, Boeing, because of the lapse of Ex-Im Bank’s charter. The U.S. Congress, after letting the charter expire, did reauthorize the Export Credit Agency (ECA) months later, but has yet to confirm enough board members to constitute a quorum, meaning the institution still cannot support deals in excess of $10 million. Multiple satellite awards remain frozen because of the absence of this quorum, but Kacific is ready to move on.
“Thanks to our large volume of firm bandwidth sales, we have been able to attract interest from alternate financing solutions as well as from other export credit agencies,” Christian Patouraux, CEO of Kacific, told Via Satellite. “Kacific has now all but completed the work required to put its first satellite, K-1, on track. More than 70 percent of its future capacity has already been sold. Thanks to this success, many locations covered by K-1 no longer have capacity for sale.”
Patouraux said Kacific now has more than $434 million in pre-sale contracts and supply agreements. Many of the customers are governments, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecom operators across the Asia-Pacific, with much of their focus being on connecting education and healthcare. Ahead of launching Kacific 1, the company has been providing an interim service that Patouraux said provides an opportunity to learn and adjust Kacific’s future offering to real conditions on the ground. The interim service uses the Newtec Dialog multiservice platform, hosted at Av-Comm’s teleport in Australia to provide internet connectivity in the Republic of Vanuatu.
Upcoming satellite operator LeoSat is in discussion with eight geosynchronous satellite operators on investing in the company’s future high capacity Low Earth Orbit (LEO) system. The talks could lead to an arrangement whereby an established Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) provider would have shared access to the LeoSat constellation once in orbit, Mark Rigolle, CEO of LeoSat, told Via Satellite.
“We are talking to some eight strategic investors, FSS operators, who are in various stages of due diligence,” Rigolle said, adding that it took nine months for SES before that operator made its investment in O3b Networks. Rigolle is a former CFO and CEO of O3b, and guided the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) operator to raising $1.2 billion back in the late 2000s.
Rigolle estimates that LeoSat will require $3.5 to $3.6 billion for its planned constellation of high throughput, low latency satellites. He said the Round A funding the company is currently undergoing will be for equity.
An FSS partnership with LeoSat could continue a trend growing all the more evident among GEO players as they seek to differentiate their services. Last year Intelsat partnered with OneWeb for combined GEO/LEO services, of which Gogo is the inaugural customer; SES this year moved to take 100 percent ownership of O3b, and Telesat procured two demonstration LEO spacecraft to trailblaze a potential constellation of 150 to 200 small satellites.
Europe´s first polar orbiting weather satellite, MetOp A, has survived double its specified lifetime of five years, manufacturer Airbus Defence and Space announced today. Launched Oct. 19, 2006, the satellite will soon accomplish 10 years in space for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
MetOp A has orbited Earth almost 52,000 times and delivered more than 100 terabytes of weather and climate data. Orbiting at approximately 830 kilometers the spacecraft was Europe’s first Low Earth Orbit (LEO) meteorological satellite. Now one of three identical spacecraft, MetOp A circles the planet sun-synchronously 14 times a day, flying much closer to the Earth than the geostationary Meteo-satellites placed 36,000 km above the equator. The satellite provides observations in finer detail over the full Earth, including high latitude regions critical for weather forecasts in Europe.
Since September 2012, MetOp A has operated in tandem with MetOp B, flying in the same orbit, half an orbit apart, to better observe rapid changes in the atmosphere. The duo collect data essential for accurate forecasts up to 12 days ahead. The third satellite, MetOp C, is scheduled for launch in 2018.
“By itself MetOp A contributes roughly 25 percent of all data gathered for meteorological purposes, and 38 percent of all satellite platforms. The MetOp fleet’s performance in measuring trace gases, and in the field of atmospheric chemistry, e.g. methane, sulfur dioxide, volcanic ash, has exceeded all expectations. Furthermore, climate and environmental monitoring benefits from the long-lasting program with three satellites designed to operate for more than two decades,” said Dieter Klaes, program scientist at EUMETSAT.
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the European Space Agency (ESA) and European partners Telespazio of Italy and OHB System AG of Germany to initiate the pilot phase of the Dream Chaser for European Utilization (DC4EU) program. The team of four will now assess the feasibility and commercial viability of the DC4EU dedicated mission to provide affordable, independent European access to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) via the Dream Chaser Space Utility Vehicle (SUV).
“DC4EU could represent a valuable platform to enable independent European access to LEO through a ‘customized’ European variant of the Dream Chaser spacecraft. We are willing to explore the potential of such a promising solution. That could be a major element for the setting up of the future European LEO service missions ecosystem,” said Giuseppe Aridon, VP of strategy and marketing at Telespazio.
ESA chose the DC4EU mission as one of eight out of 60 proposals to begin a pilot phase implementation in 2016. According to the companies involved, DC4EU would have compatibility with the future Ariane 6 launch vehicle and the ability to land on suitable runways for near-immediate payload access. The objective of the pilot phase is to demonstrate the technical and programmatic feasibility of DC4EU, which includes the preparation of a business plan highlighting the partnership viability for both private and public interests.
“Commercial partnerships are a new element of the ESA Space Exploration Program. They open up space exploration for private-sector-led initiatives and offer exciting opportunities for advancing the implementation of the ESA strategic goals for space exploration in novel ways, and for enlarging the stakeholder community actively engaged in exploring space,” said David Parker, ESA director for human spaceflight and robotic exploration.
SNC has a contract with NASA to provide cargo services to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract. Along with cargo missions, Dream Chaser has potential for a variety of LEO space missions including in-orbit servicing.
Eutelsat has signed a partnership with two satellite manufacturers, Orbital ATK in the U.S. and Airbus Defence and Space of France, to co-build Eutelsat 5 West B. Under the terms of the agreement, Orbital ATK will provide a GEOStar satellite platform, and Airbus Defence and Space will provide a communications payload consisting of 35 active Ku-band channels. This is the first time the two companies have partnered on satellite work.
With an estimated final launch mass of around three tons and a power of 5 kW, Eutelsat 5 West B will replace Eutelsat 5 West A, addressing predominantly French, Italian and Algerian broadcast markets from the 5 degrees west orbital slot. The satellite will feature switchable transponders to increase commercial flexibility. The companies will design, build and test the spacecraft at Orbital ATK’s satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia.
Eutelsat 5 West B will have an operational lifetime of more than 15 years, and is scheduled to launch in a stacked configuration with Orbital ATK’s first Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV 1) on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton rocket in 2018. Eutelsat expects significant savings will be achieved relative to the theoretical cost of replicating Eutelsat 5 West A, as the replacement is the first satellite to be procured within the framework of the company’s capex reduction strategy announced in June 2016. The company expects these savings to come from an improved match of the satellite’s coverage with specific customer requirements, thus lowering costs on power requirements and hardware.
Eutelsat is discontinuing the C-band mission of Eutelsat 5 West A, which served mainly data customers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The operator plans to enable service continuity by similar C-band capacity available on other Eutelsat resources.
S7 Group, the largest private aviation holding company in Russia, has agreed to purchase Sea Launch, operator of the Zenit launch system.
The transaction requires the approval of U.S. government agencies, namely the Directorate of Defense Trade Control within the Department of State, and the Foreign Investment Committee of the United States (CFIUS). Sea Launch and S7 Group expect this process could take several months.
In conjunction with this purchase agreement, S7 Group also signed a deal with S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia to resume Sea Launch operations. In 2014, Sea Launch took its Launch Commander and Odyssey vessels out of service, and reduced the company’s head count. Energia has now agreed to provide S7 Group with the necessary engineering and launch support, as well as system integration services to revitalize Sea Launch, which had its last mission in May 2014.
Satellite operator O3b Networks and telecommunications solutions provider RigNet have entered an agreement with Modec to supply high-throughput, low latency connectivity for the company’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels off the coast of Brazil. RigNet will integrate O3b’s Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite network solution, enabling Modec to deliver operational decisions in real-time through advanced collaborative environments.
An FPSO is a floating production system that receives fluids from a subsea reservoir through risers, which then separate fluids into crude oil, natural gas, water and impurities within the topsides production facilities onboard. Crude oil stored in the storage tanks of the FPSO is offloaded onto shuttle tankers to go to market or for further refining onshore. FPSOs today have become the primary production method for many offshore oil and gas producing regions around the world. Using satellite connectivity, Modec experts at onshore monitoring centers can now work directly with offshore operators, using real-time information for decision-making.
“Because of high-latency, we have had to establish a sub-par communications infrastructure on board each vessel. With O3b, we can set-up offshore as an extended environment to onshore support to implement a consistent and efficient management system, and provide extensive business tools to improve the control of the work, which will eventually reduce operations costs,” said Soichi Ide, VP of Modec do Brasil. “Crews on board an FPSO are often isolated. Having the ability to seamlessly address any anomaly will contribute to quick decisions to act for any safety or environmental event, and will result in delivering better business performance, of course with better financial performance too.”
Argentinian telecommunications company ARSAT has selected Hughes’ Jupiter system to deliver high-speed satellite internet connectivity to schools and underserved rural areas of the country. Hughes is providing a latest generation Jupiter system, including gateways and VSATs, which will operate over the ARSAT 1 and 2 satellites.
The initial phase envisions approximately 1,000 terminals connecting schools to the internet, working toward an eventual goal of 2,000 sites. ARSAT’s Jupiter implementation is part of Argentina’s initiative to increase internet connectivity and reduce service costs for rural communities that are unserved or underserved by terrestrial broadband services. A particular area of focus is digital inclusion of educational facilities, bringing broadband connectivity to rural schools.
“Argentina has one of the highest rates of internet connectivity in Latin America, but mostly in urban areas. We are working to build on that by improving the quality and accessibility of service across the country, particularly rural areas,” said Rodrigo de Loredo, president of ARSAT.
ARSAT provides satellite telecommunications services such as voice, data transmission, audio and video, and is also in charge of other major telecommunications projects, namely Argentina’s Federal Fiber Optical Network, the National Data Center, and the national platform for the Argentine System of Direct-to-Home (DTH) Free TV.
The Peruvian Space Agency CONIDA’s PeruSAT 1 satellite has delivered its first images after launching Sept. 16 from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite, built by Airbus Defence and Space as the result of a bilateral agreement between Peru and France, collects images for use in agriculture, urban planning, border control and drug trafficking, and will support the management of humanitarian aid and the evaluation of natural disasters, among other applications.
From now until the end of the year, PeruSAT 1 will undergo exhaustive in-orbit tests from the CNOIS (Centro Nacional de Operaciones de Imágenes Satelitales) control center, which Airbus Defence and Space also built, in Pucusana, south of Lima to ensure that all subsystems are operating properly. After testing, fully trained Peruvian engineers and technicians of the customer CONIDA will operate the satellite.
PeruSAT 1 is based on the AstroBus S platform, featuring a silicon carbide optical instrument system with 70cm resolution. Airbus Defence and Space constructed the satellite in less than 24 months — a record time for the company.
Arqiva has extended its relationship with Intelsat to distribute premium sports content to viewers in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region via multiple Intelsat satellites. Under a multi-year agreement, Arqiva is using services on Intelsat 34 and Intelsat 20 to broadcast content to millions of sports fans located in these regions.
The Intelsat 20 satellite, located at 68.5 degrees east, hosts the region’s premier cable neighborhood that serves as a transcontinental hotspot from Europe, with a particularly high viewership in India. Launched in 2015, Intelsat 34, orbiting at 304.5 degrees east, is one of Intelsat’s three satellites hosting pan-regional video distribution neighborhoods in Latin America, complementing Intelsat 11 and Intelsat 21. Intelsat 34 includes a C-band payload, which delivers media distribution services to Latin American cable systems for blue chip media including Fox Sports and HBOLA.
Satellite operators in Latin America’s three largest economies are hopeful that economic weakness in the region will pass in the near future. New presidents in Brazil and Argentina, and policy changes in Argentina and Mexico specifically, are having salient impacts on the countries’ telecommunications sectors.
“It is a really tough year for us,” Gustavo Silbert, president of Brazil-based Embratel Star One, said Sept. 12 at World Satellite Business Week in Paris, France. “Inflation is around 10 percent, so it is very, very bad. Unemployment is around 11 percent. Those are the bad things that happened, but what we see now is a kind of turning point; we have a new government with a lot of expectations.”
Brazil impeached its president, Dilma Rousseff, this August after nearly a yearlong process. The impeachment, combined with the Zika crisis and ongoing market challenges from factors like the weak state of the oil and gas market, have further stressed the country’s economy. Silbert said Star One typically makes purchases in U.S. dollars but sells in Brazilian reals, making currency depreciation another challenge. Still, he said the company has had some notable highlights, particularly with the recent Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. He said Star One provided 25 dedicated channels for the Olympics in full HD, as well as some 4K, and made content accessible to “every screen,” including using internet to reach multiple devices.
In Argentina, national satellite operator Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales Sociedad Anonima (ARSAT) said inflation has stalled out the economy, but with the country’s renewed interest in international friendships, moods are upbeat for near-term turnaround.
“Certainly the fact that inflation reached 20, perhaps 30 percent or more in the past years created stagflation of the economy, and we are in the battle to control inflation,” said Henoch Aguiar, vice president of ARSAT. “We think in the next months we will see that and expect good movements of the economy for the next year.”
Aguiar added that while the national economy has struggled, satellite in particular has grown at an appreciable rate. In an accompanying presentation, he said 65 percent of ARSAT 1, the operator’s first satellite, which launched in 2014, is already contracted. The satellite has a 14 percent backlog, 10 percent more capacity sales are forecasted for next year, and another 10 percent are not being leased commercially. ARSAT 2, launched in 2015, is 35 percent utilized, with a 25 percent backlog and future forecasted sales of 30 percent within the next one to two years. Like its predecessor, 10 percent of the satellite is also not available for commercial lease.
In a step change from the past, Aguiar said the Argentine government is planning to shed some of its protectionist policies in favor of letting international satellite operators sell capacity in the country. Even among differing political parties, he said this mindset remains the same: “all of them share one idea — Argentina must be open to the world.”
