Astrium telecoms equipment selected to fly on the Jabiru-1 Mission
Astrium, the number one company in Europe for space technologies and systems, has won a contract to supply telecommunication products for NewSat’s Jabiru-1 satellite, primed by Lockheed Martin based in Newtown, Pennsylvania (USA).
This contract is a new milestone for Astrium in the US market and the first contract from Lockheed Martin for this type of equipment. In December 2011, Astrium won a contract for delivery of a high precision Fiber Optic Gyro Unit (Astrix(R)) for the NASA/NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) mission. Beyond these latest successes, Astrium regularly supplies equipment to US prime contractors through its subsidiaries Tesat, Jena-Optronik, and Dutch Space.
Astrium will supply Ku-band communications receivers and Ka-band beacons to Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin has been selected by Australian based NewSat to manufacture the Jabiru-1 satellite scheduled to be launched in late 2014 aboard an Astrium-built Ariane-5.
Jabiru-1, which has a minimum lifetime of 15 years, is expected to be positioned over the Indian Ocean to cover regions including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Somalia.
The equipment to be supplied uses technologies developed for the Generic Flexible Payload (GFP) program, supported by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Ku-band communications receivers recover the very low power uplink signals from ground stations and provide frequency domain isolation between the uplink and downlink signals to avoid interference. The Ka-band beacons provide a signal to enable ground antennas to locate and lock onto the spacecraft position. All products will be delivered in the first half of 2013.
Andy Warburton, Frequency Converter Product Line Manager at Astrium in Portsmouth said: “In addition to the hard work on the GFP program, this contract is further recognition of the technical expertise developed here within Astrium, which is highly relevant for frequency converters and beacons.”
Astrium, through its products business, is a world-leading equipment supplier for the space industry. With a unique heritage, workforce and industrial capability, Astrium offers an extensive portfolio for all types of space applications: telecommunications, Earth observation, navigation, scientific missions, human spaceflight and launchers. Astrium has accumulated several decades of development and production experience for platform data handling, power, sensors and actuators and payload equipment.
About Astrium
Astrium is the number one company in Europe for space technologies and the third in the world. In 2011, Astrium had a turnover close to [euro]5 billion and 18,000 employees worldwide, mainly in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Astrium is the sole European company that covers the whole range of civil and defence space systems and services. Its three business units are: Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure; Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment; Astrium Services for comprehensive fixed and mobile end-to-end solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, high security and broadcast satellite communications equipment and systems, and bespoke geo-information services, worldwide.
Astrium is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2011, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of [euro] 49.1 billion and employed a workforce of over 133,000.
