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Astrium-built Alphasat satellite
ready for service at its
operational orbital position
20 November
2013
Alphasat has
now reached its operational
in-orbit position and has
successfully completed all
in-orbit tests.
Built for
Inmarsat, the leading provider
of global mobile satellite
communications services,
Alphasat carries a new
generation of advanced geomobile
communications payload in
L-band, developed by Astrium in
the UK with investment support
from the Technology Strategy
Board and the UK Space Agency.
This payload will augment
Inmarsat’s existing broadband
network service across Europe,
Africa and the Middle East,
providing new capabilities in
terms of performance and
resource availability. It also
delivers additional L-band space
segment redundancy and
consolidates safety of life
services for the aeronautical
and maritime sectors.
This advanced
payload features eight new
generation digital signal
processors, which are able to
efficiently manage multiple
communications with maximum
flexibility in both frequency
and beam power allocation, and
an 11-metre antenna reflector.
Alphasat also
carries four technology
demonstration payloads for ESA,
including a laser communications
terminal developed under a
German space agency DLR
contract.
Alphasat,
designed and built by Astrium,
is also the first flight
model of the new high capacity
European satellite platform
Alphabus which has been
jointly developed by Astrium and
Thales Alenia Space with ESA and
CNES (French Space Agency)
support, to address the upper
range of the communications
satellite market. The Alphabus
platform is the most powerful
platform on the market, capable
of conducting missions with a
satellite launch mass of up to
8,800kg, a payload power of up
to 22kW and a payload mass up to
2,000kg.
After its
successful launch by Ariane 5 on
25 July 2013, Alphasat’s Launch
and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP)
operations were conducted from
the Astrium spacecraft control
centre in Toulouse. The
satellite reached its testing
position in geostationary orbit
on 31 July, where it fully
deployed its solar arrays and
its deployable reflector.
Testing of the satellite
platform went smoothly and
Astrium handed over control of
the satellite to Inmarsat on 12
August.
Since then,
Inmarsat has conducted intensive
payload testing in orbit,
supported by Astrium engineers.
Alphasat reached its operational
position in October, where ESA’s
technology demonstrator payloads
have also been tested. Inmarsat
has begun the migration of
Global Satellite Phone Service
(GSPS) to Alphasat. Migration of
other services is scheduled to
be completed by the middle of
2014.
Alphasat,
designed for a 15-year in-orbit
lifetime, had a launch mass of
6,650 kg, with a deployed solar
array wingspan of 40 metres.
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