Spainsat NG

Spainsat NG program
Program overview
Country Spain
OrganizationHisdesat
PurposeCommunications
StatusIn development
Program history
Duration2024–2040 (forecast)
First flightSpainsat NG I
NET January 28, 2025, 11:00 pm EST (January 29, 2025, 04:00 UTC)[1]
Last flightSpainsat NG II (June 2025)[2]
Vehicle information
Launch vehicle(s)Falcon 9 Block 5

Spainsat NG is a Spanish communications satellite program aimed at developing next-generation satellites to meet Spain's government and military secure communications needs.[3]

The industrial management of the program is carried out by a consortium of four contractors: Airbus Defense and Space in Spain and France, and Thales Alenia Space in Spain and France.[4][5][6] Other companies from the Spanish space sector that will also participate are Acorde, Anteral, Arquimea, Crisa, GMV, Iberespacio, Indra, Sener and Tecnobit.[7] Public participation includes the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Industry, CDTI, INTA and ESA. The satellites operator will be Hisdesat.[8]

The Spainsat NG program comprises two satellites, Spainsat NG I and Spainsat NG II, which will be located in geostationary orbit and will operate in X-band, military Ka-band and UHF. These satellites will be based on the Eurostar Neo platform, Airbus' new geostationary telecommunications satellite product. This platform is a significant evolution of the reliable Eurostar platform. The communication payloads of both satellites will be provided by the Spanish industry, with Airbus in Spain being responsible for the X-band payload and Thales in Spain being responsible for the Ka and UHF band payloads.

The satellites will have protection against interference, as well as the ability to precisely geolocate the origin of the interference, and will probably also have protection against high altitude nuclear explosions (HANE).[9]

In October 2020, Spainsat NG program successfully passed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR)[10] and in December 2021 it passed the Critical Design Review (CDR).[11]

The first satellite, Spainsat NG I, was successfully launched on 30 January 2025.[12] The satellite, that occupies GEO 29° E position, was fully operational on August 2025, when the transfer of communications carriers from satellite XTAR-EUR was completed.[13] The second one, the Spainsat NG II, will be launched also in 2025 and will occupy the GEO 30° W position, replacing Spainsat. The Spainsat NG satellites will have an operational useful life of 15 years, remaining in service until 2040. Both launches will be performed by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "SPAINSAT New Generation I". Next Spaceflight. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  2. ^ Pons, Juan (April 22, 2024). "Hisdesat and Defence unveil the Spanish military satellite that holds the most secrets". Atalayar. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  3. ^ "Hisdesat y el Ministerio de Defensa de España firman acuerdo por SpainSAT NG". LATAM Satelital (in Spanish). July 13, 2019.
  4. ^ "Hisdesat designa a Airbus y Thales Alenia Space para construir los satélites SPAINSAT NG". TEDAE (in Spanish). July 18, 2019.
  5. ^ "Airbus inks two-satellite deal with Spain's satellite operator Hisdesat". SpaceNews. May 6, 2019.
  6. ^ "Airbus y Thales Alenia Space construirán dos nuevos satélites Spainsat". www.europapress.es (in Spanish). May 6, 2019.
  7. ^ "Hisdesat y Defensa firman el contrato del programa Spainsat NG". www.infoespacial.com (in Spanish). July 11, 2019.
  8. ^ "Hisdesat, dos décadas impulsando la industria espacial de nuestro país". www.elradar.es (in Spanish). April 28, 2020.
  9. ^ Dirección General de Armamento y Material (November 2019). "PROGRAMA SPAINSAT NG" (PDF). Ministerio de Defensa (España) (in Spanish). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 13, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  10. ^ "SPAINSAT NG supera con éxito la Revisión preliminar del diseño (PDR)". Avion Revue (in Spanish). October 22, 2020.
  11. ^ "El programa SPAINSAT NG supera con éxito la revisión crítica de diseño". Avion Revue (in Spanish). December 20, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  12. ^ Rubio, Isabel (January 30, 2025). "Lanzado con éxito el SpainSat NG I, un avanzado satélite para garantizar comunicaciones seguras al Ejército español". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  13. ^ Trelles, Gastón (August 12, 2025). "Comienza a operar el SpainSat NG-I, el nuevo satélite de comunicaciones de Defensa: brindará servicios a la OTAN". El Español (in Spanish). Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  14. ^ "SpaceX lanzará los satélites españoles SpainSat NG". Avion Revue (in Spanish). November 4, 2022.
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