27 May 2013
OHB System AG, and
Astrium GmbH signed the
final contract for the
delivery of a satellite
for the upcoming
European Data Relay
Satellite System (EDRS).
The contract is valued
at EUR 157.5 million.
With the
establishment of the
European Data Relay
Satellite System by the
European Space Agency
ESA, a new standard in
space-based
communications is to be
implemented. The
decision to go ahead
with EDRS was made at
the ESA council of
ministers conference in
Den Haag in 2008. It is
now being implemented
under the industrial
leadership of Germany
with the material
support of the German
Federal Ministry of
Economics and Technology
(BMWi) and the German
Aerospace Center (DLR).
Astrium is ESA’s
industrial prime
contractor and
responsible for setting
up and subsequently
operating the entire
EDRS system.
The EDRS-C satellite,
which is now being
developed and built by
OHB System, thus forms
part of a constellation
of geostationary
satellites which will be
receiving data from
low-flying satellites
and transmitting it to
the earth. The
geostationary position
of the relay satellites
over Europe offers great
advantages for numerous
communications and earth
observation applications
such as greater data
transmission rates,
longer and swifter
contact times and
enhanced data security.
EDRS-C is currently
being assembled on the
basis of the SmallGEO
platform currently under
development at OHB
System under ESA’s ARTES
11 program. The planned
payload comprises an
optical laser
communications terminal
(LCT) for the
intersatellite links and
a Ka band module for
transmitting the data
received to the ground.
To be supplied by Tesat
Spacecom GmbH from
Backnang near Stuttgart,
the payload transmits
1,800 Mpbs per data at
the speed of light
across a distance of up
to 45,000 kilometers.
The satellite is to go
into operation in 2016.
