For planet earth and beyond
The telecommunications satellite developed under ESA’s SmallGEO Partnership Project has just passed three years of service in orbit. ESA initiated the SmallGEO Partnership Project in response to the market demand for smaller, lighter and more versatile geostationary telecommunications satellites.
The second node in the most sophisticated laser communication network ever designed is ready to go into service.
After four months of exhaustive testing in space, the flagship SmallGEO mission Hispasat 36W-1 has passed all trials with flying colours, which means control has been handed to the operator.
28 January 2017 – The first flight opportunity for the new SmallGEO platform, Hispasat's H36W-1 satellite, was succesfully launched from the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, in the early hours of this morning.
18 January 2017 – A special media briefing on SmallGEO and its first flight took place on Wednesday 18 January, at ESA HQ in Paris. Hispasat 36W-1 will be the first satellite to use the SmallGEO platform, marking the first partnership between ESA and the Spanish operator.
1 December 2016 – The first telecom satellite built using the SmallGEO platform, Hispasat 36W-1, arrived in Kourou today after completing its final tests at IABG in Germany. Preparations are now being undertaken for the January launch on a Soyuz rocket.
7 March 2016 – Using GNSS for autonomous station-keeping is a significant breakthrough that should reduce operational costs and improve pointing performance of telecoms satellites. With the support of ESA, Thales Alenia Space Italia has developed a GNSS receiver module that can be hosted on a spacecraft's on-board computer.
13 January 2016 — The Hispasat AG1 satellite, based on the new SmallGEO platform, has successfully completed the first step of the environmental test campaign. The team will continue the ground test programme to complete the design and performance verifications prior to shipping the satellite to Kourou, French Guiana, for launch later this year.
20 February 2015 – The Hispasat AG1 communications satellite completes the integration phase in the OHB System's cleanroom in Bremen (DE) and is now undergoing environmental impact testing.