The company has supplied equipment for the payload of telecommunications satellite Hylas-1, itself a public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and the British company Avanti Communications.

The payload of advanced communications from the ESA will flexibly provide services to hundreds of thousands of European users, shifting bandwidth between the various regions in response to demand, according to a release from the Agency. 

“There is a great sense of fulfillment today”, said the project manager for the ESA’s Hylas-1 mission, Andrea Cotellessa. “We have completed the work in less than four and a half years from contract signature”. “Considering the advanced payload aboard Hylas-1 and the performances measured so far, everybody involved in this project should feel very proud”, he assured. 

 EADS Astrium is the principal contractor for the project, while Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization, performs the same duties for the satellite platform. The assembly of the rocket and the qualification testing have been carried out in Bangalore, India. Once the testing is complete, Hylas-1 will be transported to the European space port in French Guiana—see photo—in a Russian Antonov-124 plane, where it will be launched in November. The launch will take place aboard a European Ariane 5 ECA rocket, shared with another communications satellite. 

After Hylas-1, in the next two to three years another two satellites will be sent into orbit that have been developed in collaboration with satellite operators: Alphasat, built by the English company Inmarsat and with Astrium as the principal contractor, and HAG-1, developed by Hispasat, for which the Germany firm OHB is the principal contractor. Hispasat AG1 is a geostationary satellite, expected to be launched in 2012. Tecnobit will also participate in its development, which will be the company’s first contract in the space sector. 

 Source: Infodefensa