The primary objective of ESA under the Alphasat Programme is to facilitate an early first flight, and in-orbit validation of the Alphabus platform, currently under development with industry.

Alphasat travels to Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana and is tested and fuelled ready for the launch on Ariane 5, scheduled for 25 July.

Find out more about the latest in the development and launch plans for Alphasat at the dedicated Alphasat website.

Tucked away in a vacuum chamber for several months, Europe´s largest telecom satellite has faced the harsh conditions it will deal with once it is launched into space this summer.

Alphabus is the first European Large Platform for geostationary telecommunication satellites of up to 22 KW payload power and up to 1400 kg payload mass. The Alphasat satellite is the first mission based on the Alphabus platform.

ESA will launch an Open Call For Proposals in March 2011 to support the Alphasat Application Development Initiative. To learn more about this initiative, a special workshop will take place at Inmarsat in London on Wednesday 23 February.