News

Flexible payloads come of age

29 April 2016 – The Third ESA Workshop on Flexible Telecom Payloads which recently took place at ESTEC confirmed the evolution towards flexible payloads in the satellite industry.

Govsatcom - ESA and Space Industry supporting a European solution

12 April 2016 – At an event held on 5 April at ESA Headquarters in Paris, more than eighty high-level representatives from the European space industry and government discussed project proposals for the ESA Govsatcom Precursor programme.

Electric propulsion gets a boost from TAS

29 March 2016 – Thales Alenia Space Belgium (TAS-B) has announced that its PPU Mk3 power supply for plasma thrusters has now been qualified. The development and qualification of the new unit was supported by the Belgian government and by ESA through the Competitiveness & Growth element of the ARTES programme.

Pioneer: Announcement of Opportunity

23 March 2016 – Pioneer is a new ESA initiative that aims to facilitate in-orbit test flights for innovative services, applications, systems and technologies by providing affordable, timely and efficient access to space.

Megaconstellation as Enablers for New Service and Applications Opportunities

Open Invitation To Tender - Closing date: 30 December 2016

The main purpose of this activity is to identify and analyse services and applications for which a disruptive change could emerge from the deployment of mega-constellations. The activity shall focus on the down-stream space applications segment and shall characterize concrete service opportunities.

Newtec introduces industry's first DVB-S2X VSAT modem

18 March 2016 – Newtec is the first satellite equipment manufacturer to deliver a high-speed VSAT modem based on the new S2X standard. With the new terminal, the Belgian company is targeting the high-end mobility, IP trunking and High Throughput Satellite (HTS) markets.

TAS developing a reconfigurable antenna

15 March 2016 – With the support of ESA, Thales Alenia Space France (TAS-F) has developed a prototype of a reflector antenna that can be reconfigured in orbit, a breakthrough that the company believes has great commercial potential.

Payload technologies and products in the spotlight at ESTEC

9 March 2016 – A recent four-day event held at ESTEC provided a broad overview of current payload technology and product development.

Space keeps up safe as air travel rises

8 Mar 2016 – ESA and UK satellite operator Inmarsat are forging ahead with the development of air–ground communications via satellite as part of Europe’s plan to modernise air traffic management across the continent and beyond.

An embedded GNSS receiver for GEO

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.