FUTURE SATELLITES

HISPASAT AG1

The Hispasat AG1 satellite continued to reach milestones in 2014. Over the course of this business year, the repeater was integrated into the platform, which has allowed preparation to begin on integration and systems testing. In 2015 it is expected that the initial functional tests will be completed and that the satellite will be sent to the IABG facilities in Munich, where the rest of the activities will be carried out until the satellite is finished.

HISPASAT 1F

In 2014, HISPASAT initiated the Hispasat 1F mission and signed a contract awarding its construction to Space Systems Loral.

The Hispasat 1F satellite, located at 30º West, will replace Hispasat 1D. It will provide additional Ku-band capacity to the Group for the Andean and Brazilian Regions, and will expand transatlantic connectivity capacity for both Europe-America and America-Europe. Moreover, Ka-band capacity will be added, covering Europe and North Africa to increase HISPASAT broadband services in the region.

Hispasat 1F has an expected useful life of 15 years and will be built on SSL’s 1300 satellite platform. It will have 11.5 kilowatts of power and a multi-mission useful load distributed into:

• 48 Ku-band transponders, which will provide service in three coverage areas:
  • - Europe and North Africa: coverage for the Iberian Pennisula, Balearic, Canary and Azores Islands, Cape Verde and Madeira; Mauritania, Morocco, Mediterranean countries in Northwest Africa and the majority of the European continent visible from 30º West.
  • - Pan-America: with coverage from Canada to Patagonia, excluding Brazil.
  • - South America: with coverage for the majority of the continent, especially Brazil.
• 6 Ka-band beams, with coverage in the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Northeast Africa and Southeast and Central Europe.
• 1 Ka-BSS-band beam with coverage centred on the Iberian Peninsula.
• 1 C-band beam with coverage centred on the Iberian Peninsula.

AMAZONAS 5

In December of 2014, HISPASAT awarded Space Systems Loral the project of building Amazonas 5, which will offer a wide variety of telecommunications services in Latin America. This new satellite will be the result of an expansion of the Amazonas 4B project, to which full capacity of Amazonas 4A was added. Redefining the 4B mission is just one of the measures HISPASAT has taken in order to minimise any impact the anomaly detected in the Amazonas 4A power subsystem might have. As a result, not only will HISPASAT Group complete its capacity offer in a short time period, which could have been lost due to the incident in the Amazonas 4A, it will also have additional capacity in Latin America – one of the regions with the highest growth in demand for satellite services.

Amazonas 5 has Ka-band capacity to provide broadband services in South America, Central America and Mexico. It also has Ku-band capacity, which will be used to provide audiovisual services for corporate networks and other telecommunications applications. The multi-mission payload of the Amazonas 5 will be distributed as follows:

• 24 Ku-band transponders, which will provide service in three coverage areas:
  • - Brazil in transmission, with coverage across its entire territory.
  • - Latin America in transmission, with coverage in Central and South America, excluding Brazil.
  • - South America in reception, with coverage in some of the main cities in Brazil and Latin America.
• 35 Ka-band beams, with coverage in Brasil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica and Venezuela.

In the closing quarter, with the goal of guaranteeing the launch of Hispasat 1F and Amazonas 5, the company issued a request for bids to the main suppliers. The selection and awarding will take place in the first half of 2015.