Spainsat Ng I, the Spanish Safe Communications Satellite, has been successfully released by a Falcon 9 rocket of Space X at the Cabo Cañaveral base in Florida. Those responsible say that this launch “It is the greatest milestone in Spanish space history”.
SPAINSAT NG is a Spanish communications satellite program aimed at developing new generation satellites to meet the needs of safe government and military communications in Spain. The program will be operated by Hisdesat and the first of the two satellites has already been released. It will be complemented with its twin, the spainsat NG II, whose launch is scheduled for autumn of this year.
In the spring of 2026, both satellites will operate together And they will serve two thirds of the Earth, from the United States to Singapore, placing Spain at the world avant -garde of development and innovation in the spatial field. The project, the result of public-private collaboration between the Ministry of Defense and Hisdesat, also has the financing of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism and the collaboration of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Pacis 3 technological program, of the Spanish Center For industrial technological development (CDTI), now Spanish Space Agency, of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
Spainsat ng i, the most advanced European satellite
The spainsat ng I is the most advanced satellite of safe communications and is among the most innovative in the world. If the forecasts are met, it will begin in the second semester of 2025 to service the Spanish armed forcesinternational organizations such as the European Commission in the Govsatcom program, NATO, and other governments of allied countries.
It will be placed in a geostation orbit in position 29e with the mission of ensure effective command and control In Operations of the Armed Forces in large part of the earth’s surface, guarantee the communication capacity in operations theaters lacking communications infrastructure, ensuring safe government communications in any operational environment (air, maritime, terrestrial) and providing strategic spatial capabilities to third nations.
When they are working, the Spainsat NG will replace the current communications satellites of Hisdesat, Spainsat and XTAR-EUR, and will be able to provide safe satellite communications with the maximum protection against interferences or other threatsincluding a large nuclear event. This will be possible for its active antennas and its radius defined by software, which would allow to reconfigure it on the march according to the needs.
The Secretary of State for Defense, María Amparo Valcarce; the Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Army, Francisco Braco; and the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy Antonio Piñeiro, among other civil and military authorities. Among the representation of the invited companies, in addition to Hisdesat, owner and operator of the satellite, were the shareholders of Hisdesat: Hispasat, Airbus and Indra, as well as the Ministry of Defense and the Ministries of Industry, Science, with the AEE, and digital transformation and public adinstration.
Spainsat ng i, manufacturing
Thales Alenia Space has led with Airbus Defense & Space, and the collaboration of other Spanish companies in the space sector, the process of execution and construction of Spainsat Ng I and also of its twin brother, Spainsat NG II, which will be launched in autumn of This same year. Both satellites will be located in different geostationary positions to operate in X, KA Military and UHF bands, will cover two thirds of the earth’s surface, from the United States to Singapore and will serve for the next 15 years.
The company has also been responsible for useful charges in the military UHF and KA bands and the integration of the two satellite communication module next to Airbus. The communication module is the main part of the satellite and houses useful communications loads that give meaning to the mission.
Specifically for this mission, the company built a satellite integration room at its headquarters, inaugurated in 2021, in which these modules have been integrated. It is one of the most advanced facilities of its type of existing ones in our country and supposes a qualitative jump in the capacities of the national space industry For the integration and evidence of large space systems, something within a few spatial powers worldwide.
From Thales Alenia Space it is noted that a system of these characteristics had never been integrated into Spain, A module of more than 2 tons of weight and 6 meters highequipped with toe technology in the field of space communications, made up of hundreds of sophisticated electronic units.
The company has also designed and manufactured in Spain, France, Italy and Belgium more than 200 of the critical electronic and radiofrequency units that make up the useful loads and the Telemeter and Telemetry system of the satellite. Among them are the UHF processor, heart of the payload in the UHF band; the transparent digital processor (DTP) that interconnects the useful loads in the military X and Ka bands; and Hilink, the unit responsible for providing a high -speed service link that will facilitate rapid reconfiguration of useful charges.
