E - Finmeccanica

S P A C E
9/2010 FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE
THALES ALENIA SPACE
IRIDIUM NEXT:
NEXT STOP,
THE FUTURE
IRIDIUM CHOOSES THALES ALENIA SPACE TO BUILD ITS
NEW SATELLITE CONSTELLATION NEXT, PROVIDING
RECOGNITION OF THE COMPANY’S SYSTEM ARCHITEC-
TURE EXPERIENCE AND CONFIRMING ITS LEADERSHIP IN
THE SATELLITE CONSTELLATION MARKET
offer the best price
for the capability of the
“They
constellation, they have a
tremendous amount of experience
building telecommunications satellites
in constellations, and run an
excellent engineering team.”
Scott Smith, EVP of Iridium, the
world’s only truly global mobile
satellite services provider, needs only
a few choice words to explain why
Thales Alenia Space was singled out
by Iridium among many companies
to build the company’s next-generation
satellite constellation, Iridium
NEXT. Iridium NEXT will replace the
current in-orbit constellation, allowing
Iridium to offer current and future
clients, in as early as 2015, new
services in mobile telecommunications
as well as enhanced existing
‘voice & data’ communications services.
Thales Alenia Space, the space
company of Thales and Finmeccanica,
is charged with fulfilling the order
from the American-based
provider. In just five years’ time, it
will build 66 operational satellites, 6
in-orbit spares, and 9 ground spares.
A total of 81 satellites are to be engineered,
and then, to be developed,
integrated and tested in a ‘production
line’, through a highly refined
production process, as Scott implicitly
highlighted in his words. Indeed,
if the work of space companies is
usually focused on a ‘single shot’ industrial
and technological effort, or
is otherwise limited to a few models
per program, the production of entire
constellations involves a completely
different industrial dynamic.
Thales Alenia Space is one of the
few worldwide driving forces of
space science that can meet such
complex production challenges. It
has already demonstrated this in
the past by developing, through innovative
approaches, the satellite
fleet of another American telecommunication
giant, Globalstar, and it
is also currently in charge of the production
of second-generation satellites
for this client.
The commitment with Iridium
NEXT, a contract worth USD 2.1 billion,
is awarding an already consolidated
knowledge-base, as emphasized
by Reynald Seznec, President
and CEO of Thales Alenia Space: “It
is a clear acknowledgement of our
experience in systems architecture
and in telecommunications in general.
It is also a reaffirmation of our
leadership in the market of satellite
constellations.”
Iridium, on its part, is relying on Iridium
NEXT to optimize its own global
offer of telecommunication services
capable of supplying solutions
to the maritime and avionic markets,
from public institutions (governments
and military entities) to
private companies. And, if numbers
cannot demonstrate everything,
they can certainly help understand
a lot about the commercial size of
this provider. Its commercial adventure
started in 2000 with a few
clients. Presently, 10 years later, the
company claims more than 383,000
subscribers and more than 290
companies involved in the process
of ‘manufacturing’ services for endusers.
The great challenge now is to
progress with Iridium NEXT in the
field of mobile communications because,
although the mobile wireless
industry has been growing at a fast
rate over the last twenty years, it
still covers less than 10% of the
planet’s surface.
Thales Alenia Space’s commitment
will be to guarantee that Iridium
NEXT will be fully compatible with
the already in-orbit system as well
as fully operational, even throughout
the transition phase, drawing
on its experience in the production
of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) platforms, a
satellite ‘network’ already synonymous
with quality and reliability in
the space telecommunications field.
On the other hand, the European
companies will be called to perform
the technological quality breakthrough
required by Iridium, using
high performance equipment such
as the sophisticated L-band antenna,
specially meant for third-generation
mobile services.
This will be a great challenge, due to
a fast-approaching deadline, that
Thales Alenia Space is ready to best
with the support of over four hundred
people that will work on the
program at multiple sites, in France,
Italy and Belgium. Thales as a prime
contractor will manage the programme
from Toulouse, with activities
distributed among the plants of
Cannes, Toulouse, Rome, L’Aquila and
Charleroy, each of them contributing
their technological expertise
(systems engineering, integration
and testing, development of electronic
equipment).
Moreover, Thales Alenia Space will
also be in charge of the industrial
coordination of sub-contractors
from eleven different countries, including
important American partners.
Also, even from this point of
view, the project Iridium NEXT represents
a model of international collaboration
in the space industry,
confirming stronger synergies between
the two sides of the Atlantic,
even on a commercial level.
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An artist’s impression of the Iridium
constellation. Iridium NEXT is the world’s
largest satellite constellation, comprising 81
satellites in low orbit to provide satellite
mobile communication services for voice and
data traffic
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