Overview
Spacebus Neo is a new telecom satellite product line by Thales Alenia Space, developed under an ESA Partnership Project.
Spacebus Neo is based on a modular concept. It is designed to be as quick and cost-effective to build as possible, while also being easily customised to fit the satellite owner’s mission.
It consists of a generic service module, made of an avionics module built by Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, and a propulsion module designed by Thales Alenia Space in the UK and built in Thales UK’s new Space Propulsion Integration and Manufacturing Centre in Belfast.
The generic service module is assembled in Cannes with the mission-specific payload module built in Thales Alenia Space in Toulouse, France.
| Spacebus Neo product line: Facts and figures | |
| Prime contractor | Thales Alenia Space |
| Lifetime | 15 years |
| Orbital position | Geostationary orbit |
| Payload power | up to 20kW |
| Satellite launch mass | up to 7.6 tonnes |
| Payload mass | up to 2 tonnes |
| Launcher | Compatible with all major launch vehicles |
So far Thales Alenia Space has sold eight Spacebus Neo satellites. The first was Eutelsat's Konnect, which provides broadband services for Europe and Africa. The second and third were the French government’s Syracuse-4 and SES-17, which is connecting underserved areas and accelerating digital inclusion, as well as providing broadband connectivity for commercial shipping and aviation through its operator, SES.
The other satellites are another Eutelsat mission called Konnect Very High Throughput Satellite; Satria, which will be operated by the Indonesian operator Pasifik Satelit Nusantara; Eutelsat 10B; Amazonas Nexus for Hispasat; and Astra 1P for SES.
The Spacebus Neo product line is developed in the frame of ESA's programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) and the French PIA (“Programme d’Investissement d’Avenir”), in cooperation with space agencies from ESA Member States, and managed jointly by ESA and the French Space Agency, CNES.
The Neosat programme comprises both Spacebus Neo by Thales Alenia Space and Eurostar Neo by Airbus. It includes development and in-orbit validation of the new satellite product lines for both companies, allowing the two European satellite prime integrators to deliver competitive satellites for the commercial satellite market.
So far 16 satellites and one option have been sold under the Neosat programme, of which eight have been by Thales Alenia Space and eight by Airbus.