HISPASAT 36W-1 Put in Orbit With the New Generation Digital Payload Redsat Led by Thales Alenia Space Spain

 

The Hispasat 36W-1 satellite of the Spanish satellite operator HISPASAT has been put in orbit by a Soyuz launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana. It carries on-board a unique regenerative payload, RedSAT, developed by the Spanish industry under Thales Alenia Space Spain leadership, in collaboration with HISPASAT and the European Space Agency (ESA).

 

At the fore-front of space communications

 

Thanks to RedSAT, the H36W-1 satellite embarks the most advanced technology in space communications, providing great flexibility and efficiency. The RedSAT system is composed by a regenerative on-board processor (OBP), a direct radiating antenna (DRA-ELSA) and the ground segment responsible for the control and management of the satellite network.

 

Up to 9 Spanish space companies have contributed to the development of the turnkey system for HISPASAT, under the leadership of Thales Alenia Space Spain, that has also designed and manufactured the on-board processor and the network ground segment. ESA funded 50% of the processor’s development costs.

 

RedSAT brings multiple assets with respect to conventional satellite communication systems, allowing a more agile and efficient use of the on-board power and bandwidth, as well as in-orbit reconfiguration of the satellite footprint. This system will improve the service provision to end-users allowing greater efficiency by the use of smaller user terminals and the establishment of communication among users in a single ‘satellite hop’, reducing service latency to one half –which allows optimal real-time applications such as videoconference– and simplifying the network architecture. All in all thanks to on-board signal regeneration and the coordinated used of the active antenna.

 

Pioneering digital transformation