ESA - Telecommunications - Alphabus/Alphasat

TIA - About Telecommunications

About ESA's TIA Directorate Telecommunications satellites Orbits The Satcom market Historical overview

ESA's Telecommunication Programmes

Programme overview

Alphabus/Alphasat

SmallGEO EDRS Hylas Iris Artemis Integrated Applications Promotion (IAP)

Multimedia

Image gallery Video gallery

Services

Calendar Subscribe RSS feeds

Feature

Alphabus/Alphasat

ARTES 8 Alphabus/Alphasat is a specific element dedicated to the development and deployment of Alphasat. Alphasat is the satellite that, in partnership with Inmarsat, will incorporate the first unit of the Alphabus Platform jointly developed by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. Alphasat incorporatess innovative on-board processing technology and user services.

The programme line has the following objectives:

initiate ESA-funded pre-development contracts to secure enabling technology and to assist the emergence of ‘second-source’ hardware suppliers able to match the market needs of Europe’s large satellite platform

develop and qualify, together with the French Space Agency (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales – CNES) and industry, a generic product line for Alphabus based on ground qualification of development and engineering models

procure a flight-standard platform (proto-flight model) to facilitate early first flight opportunity (Alphasat)

consolidate a large platform mission, combining ESA-funded payloads with institutional and/or commercial payloads, allowing the in-orbit demonstration of a proto-flight large platform

Launch of Alphasat on Ariane 5 is scheduled for 2012.

Last update: 26 October 2011

Send this page to a friend

Telecommunications and Integrated Applications

Documentation

Alphabus fact sheet (PDF)Alphabus fact sheet (French): [PDF file: ~168 kB]Alphabus Bulletin Article Alphasat fact sheet (PDF)Alphasat fact sheet (French): [PDF file: ~139 kB]