• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • NEWS:
  • SatNews
  • SatMagazine
  • MilSatMagazine
  • SmallSat News
  • |     EVENTS:
  • SmallSat Symposium
  • Satellite Innovation
  • MilSat Symposium

SatNews

  • HOME
  • Magazines
  • Events
  • Perspectives
  • Industry Calendar
    • IN PERSON
    • VIRTUAL
  • Subscribe

Thuraya Orders Their Next Satellite From Airbus Defense & Space

August 31, 2020

Artistic rendition of the Thuraya-4 NGS satellite, courtesy of Airbus Defense and Space.

Airbus has been selected by Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat to build the Thuraya 4-NGS, the next generation, mobile telecommunications system that will drive the continued advancement of Thuraya’s L-band business.

Thuraya 4-NGS will deliver higher capabilities and flexibility while increasing capacity and coverage across Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, enabling next generation mobility solutions for all customer segments, including defense, government and enterprise.

This is a major milestone in Yahsat’s commitment towards transforming Thuraya and rolling out its next-generation system, which entails a complete overhaul of its space and ground platforms, enabling a new set of services, products and solutions, across a greater coverage area.

The new capabilities will drive leadership across many strategic product lines, such as maritime, IoT, and data solutions offering a wide spectrum of throughput capabilities and the highest speeds available in the market, while reinforcing Thuraya’s leading position in the MSS voice market.

Thuraya’s next generation system will provide a world of opportunities to customers, service partners, hardware manufacturers and integrators, enhancing user experience across land, sea and air to support multiple customer segments, including government, consumer and enterprise.

Furthermore, an advanced portfolio of solutions to support government and defense users will accelerate Thuraya’s leadership in this market, both within the UAE, regionally and globally. Meanwhile, all existing products and services will continue to be supported by Thuraya’s space and ground segments, enabling service continuity during and after the transformation programme.

This latest commitment from Yahsat takes its total committed investment to date to well over US$500 million, and more is anticipated in the coming years, including an option with Airbus to build Thuraya 5-NGS (an additional satellite identical to Thuraya 4-NGS), strengthening its coverage and capabilities across the Asia Pacific region.

Based on the state-of-the-art, all-electric, Airbus Eurostar Neo Platform, Thuraya 4-NGS will incorporate a large 12 meter L-band antenna and a payload with on-board processing that will provide advanced routing flexibility of as many as 3200 channels, with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams. This satellite is scheduled to initiate operations in 2024.

Executive Comments

Khaled al Qubaisi

Khaled al Qubaisi, Chairman of Yahsat’s Board of Directors and CEO of Mubadala’s Aerospace, Renewables & ICT platform, said, “This commitment by Mubadala and the Government of Abu Dhabi underscores Yahsat’s position as a market leader, pioneer and disruptor. Moreover, it is another key step in reinforcing the UAE as a front-runner in the global space and satellite industry, laying the foundations for sustainable growth and development in the sector for years to come.”

Ali Al Hashemi

Ali Al Hashemi, CEO of Thuraya and General Manager of Yahsat Government Solutions (YGS), continued, “Thuraya 4-NGS represents a significant evolution of our L-band capabilities, enabling a wider range of interoperable FSS/MSS solutions for Thuraya and YGS customers. This will be critical in delivering superior defense solutions, such as battlefield communications, to our government users, while offering a complete MSS portfolio to all of our current and future customers and partners to drive the next phase of innovation and growth.”

Jean-Marc Nasr

Jean-Marc Nasr, Head of Airbus Space Systems, added, “Building on a relationship with Yahsat that dates back more than 10 years, our selection is testament to the innovation and engineering excellence of Airbus’ geostationary satellites. Thuraya 4-NGS, as well as being electric, will also benefit from our latest processed payload technology giving increased flexibility and adaptability over the course of its life in orbit. Yahsat’s new project reinforces Airbus Defence and Space’s position as the world’s number one in electric propulsion satellites.”

Filed Under: Manufacturing

Primary Sidebar

Most Read Stories

  • SpaceX Starlink push successful
  • UPDATE 3: Rocket Lab pushes NASA's TROPICS mission to orbit... Rocket Lab's official launch report...
  • In Their Honor ... Lest We Forget
  • Veterans: The Aerospace Industry needs you
  • UPDATE 3: Bye-bye BADR-8 as SpaceX launches the Arabsat satellite to orbit

About Satnews

  • Contacts
  • History

Archives

  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020

Secondary Sidebar

x
Sign up Now (For Free)
Access daily or weekly satellite news updates covering all aspects of the commercial and military satellite industry.
Invalid email address
Notify Me Regarding ( At least one ):
We value your privacy and will not sell or share your email or other information with any other company. You may also unsubscribe at anytime.

Click Here to see our full privacy policy.
Thanks for subscribing!