The company involved in different areas of the project

The secure communications satellite SpainSat NG II has successfully been launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida (see for details AVIONEWS). The SPAINSAT NG system will ensure secure communications for the Spanish Armed Forces and allied countries for decades to come. 

SPAINSAT NG, a program led, owned and operated by Hisdesat Servicios Estratégicos SA, is considered to be the most ambitious space project in Spain’s history, both due to its performance and the outstanding involvement of the national industry. The SpainSat NG satellites are among the most advanced telecommunications birds in the world. They operate from geostationary orbit in X, military Ka and UHF frequency bands, used for high throughput secure communications, enabling to provide dual, secure and resilient services to the Spanish Armed Forces, as well as to international organizations such as the European Commission, NATO, and allied countries. 

Thales Alenia Space, a joint-venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), together with Airbus Defence and Space, has led the execution and construction of the satellites. In Spain, the company has been responsible for the UHF and military Ka-band payloads and, together with Airbus, for the integration of the communication Modules, which embark the communication payloads and forms the core of their advanced technological capabilities.

State-of-the-art satellite technology in Madrid 

To carry out this mission, the company built a satellite assembly and integration clean room at its Tres Cantos site in Madrid, inaugurated in 2021, and specifically designed to integrate the communication modules of both satellites. These advanced and cutting-edge facilities make it possible to integrate and test large-scale, highly complex satellite systems, capabilities that until now were only within the reach of a few space powers worldwide.

For the first time in Spain, these facilities have enabled the integration of a module weighting more than 2 tons and measuring 6 meters in height, fully equipped with cutting-edge space communications technology and comprising hundreds of sophisticated electronic units. 

Additionally, Thales Alenia Space has designed and manufactured in Spain, France, Italy, and Belgium over 200 electronic and radiofrequency units that are an integral part of the communications payloads and the satellite's telecommand and telemetry system. Among them are the UHF processor, the core of the UHF payload; the Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) that interconnects the payloads in the X and military Ka bands; and the Hilink unit, responsible for providing a high-speed service link that will facilitate a quick reconfiguration of the payloads.