Leonardo, Thales Alenia Space will build two new Intelsat satellites for 5G
The satellites of Thales Alenia Space (a joint venture between the French Thales and the Italian Leonardo) are based on the Space Inspire satellite solution to serve the first 5G unified global network
Thales Alenia Space inaugurates 2022 with a success: it will build two new Intelsat 41 and Intelsat 44 satellites, defined by Space Inspire software.
The company, a joint venture between the French Thales (67%) and the Italian Leonardo (33%), yesterday announced the signing of the contract with Intelsat, the world's leading US operator in terms of geostationary satellite fleet.
“This is the first time ever that Intelsat has entrusted the management of a satellite project to Thales Alenia Space”, La Tribune emphasizes. The order has a value of between 200 and 300 million euros.
"This new success indicates that our Space Inspire product line, developed with the support of European and French space agencies, is perfectly suited to the evolving needs of the telecommunications market, in terms of agility and flexibility," commented Hervé Derrey, CEO by Thales Alenia Space.
There are now four 'software defined' satellites destined for Intelsat in production. The other two will be made by Airbus.
All the details.
WHAT THE TWO INTELSAT 41 AND INTELSAT 44 SATELLITES WILL BE
As the note from Thales Alenia Space explains, the two satellites Is-41 and Is-44 will be based on the innovative Space Inspire product line (Instant SPace In-orbit REconfiguration). This allows perfect reconfiguration of telecommunication missions and services, instant adaptation in orbit to the demand for broadband connectivity, exceptional video transmission quality, maximizing the effective use of satellite resources.
WHEN WILL THEY COME INTO OPERATION
The two next-generation satellites are expected to go live in 2025.
THE OTHER TWO ON AIRBUS WILL BE SUPPORTED
Intelsat 41 and Intelsat 44 will join the two solutions of the same type made by Airbus, Intelsat 42 (IS-42) and Intelsat 43 (IS-43), announced on January 8, 2021.
PROGRESS TOWARDS FIRST GLOBAL 5G NETWORK DEFINED BY SOFTWARE
For Stephen Spengler, CEO of Intelsat, "with the addition of Is-41 and Is44, in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space, Intelsat will cover the earth with so-called 'software-defined' satellites making significant progress towards the construction of the first global 5G network software-defined, designed to unify the global telecommunications ecosystem ”.
The contract enables the evolution of Intelsat's global satellite network, adding dynamically allocated high-speed connectivity in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia for commercial and government mobility services and for cellular connection.
THE ROLE OF THALES ALENIA SPACE
Finally, Thales Alenia Space underlined that in the context of the versatile and dynamic telecommunications market "it aspires to be the preferred partner of telecommunications operators for 'software-defined' satellite solutions based on its innovative Space Inspire product, over more than 20 years of experience in digital processing and its undisputed expertise in satellite constellations ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/leonardo-thales-alenia-space-costruira-due-nuovi-satelliti-intelsat-per-il-5g/ on Thu, 13 Jan 2022 10:25:24 +0000.