The second Inmarsat-6 geostationary telecommunications satellite built by Airbus (I-6 F2) arrived aboard an Airbus Beluga at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ready for its launch in February.
The second generation Inmarsat-6 satellite is based on Airbus' ultra-reliable Eurostar E3000 spacecraft and will be the 58th Eurostar E3000 built by Airbus. It will be the ninth Eurostar in orbit equipped with electric propulsion for orbit lift, reinforcing Airbus' position as a world leader in electric propulsion.
François Gaullier, Head of Telecommunications and Navigation Systems at Airbus, said: “The I-6 F2, with its sophisticated digitally processed payload, will the Inmarsat-6 F1 (I-6 F1) in orbit, giving Inmarsat even more flexibility, capability and capacity.
“This is the 10th geotelecommunications satellite we have built for our longtime customer Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, and with the I-6 F1 satellites will enable a sea change in the capabilities and capabilities of their satellite. ELERA services and offer significant additional capacity to its Global Xpress network.”
The I-6 F1 and I-6 F2 each feature a large 9 m aperture L-band antenna and six multi-beam Ka-band antennas, providing a high level of flexibility and connectivity.
They also carry next-generation modular digital processors to provide full routing flexibility on up to 8.000 channels and dynamic power allocation for over 200 L-band spot beams per spacecraft. The Ka-band punctual beams are steerable along the entire Earth's disk, with a flexible channel for beam allocation.
The satellites will enable Inmarsat to further enhance its world-leading ELERA (L-band) and Global Xpress (Ka-band) networks, respectively, for customers on land, sea and air. They are also the next step in the company's plans for the world's first multidimensional network, Inmarsat ORCHESTRA.
The “network of networks” will build on Inmarsat's existing space capabilities to deliver transformational growth in capacity and new capabilities for customers in the 2030s and beyond.
Investments made by Airbus in platform and payload technologies used on the I-6 are ed by the European Space Agency and national agencies, in particular the UK Space Agency and CNES, 's National Center for Space Studies. The I-6 F2 has a launch mass of 5,5 tons, spacecraft power of 21 kW and a service life of over 15 years.
The first Inmarsat-6 (I-6 F1) satellite built by Airbus was successfully launched in December 2021. It reached its geostationary test site in summer 2022 and is scheduled to enter service in early 2023. The I- 6 F2 is expected to follow after its successful launch and entry into service in early 2024.
Airbus geostationary telecommunications satellites have over 1300 years of successful operation and are in service or under construction for all of the world's leading geostationary satellite operators.
Street: Airbus
