Two moves in South Asia could provide Astrium with a launch customer for a new small communications spacecraft, while reinforcing the company's lock on the remote-sensing satellite market.

On Nov. 16, Sri Lanka signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to acquire a small telecom satellite from U.K.-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., which Astrium acquired at the beginning of the year to bolster its small-sat know-how. SSTL CEO Matt Perkins says he hopes to conclude a contract by mid-2010.

The sale would be the first for the GMPT, a multipurpose platform intended for communications, navigation and exploration applications. The three-axis, 2.5-kw.-class bus is based on heritage from the 600-kg. (1,320-lb.) ­Giove A test satellite supplied for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system. Designed to carry up to 24 transponders with a 15-year service life, GMPT gives Astrium another option at the bottom end of the satcom sector.

The EADS division now serves this segment through an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization's Antrix arm. The first of two spacecraft it has agreed to build with the Antrix bus failed after launch early this year; the second, Hylas-1, is slated to be orbited in mid-2010.

In particular, the new SSTL bus will provide Astrium with a low-cost high-performance alternative to spacecraft that China and other newcomers have been marketing with some success to developing nations. The aim, Perkins says, is to take the approach SSTL has employed so successfully in Earth observation - involving a broad mix of technology transfer, technical assistance and academic exchange - and apply it to satellite communications.

Like another small-satcom bus being introduced by OHB System, the new platform was developed under an European Space Agency initiative aimed at helping European manufacturers to compete more effectively in the small-satcom market, which is dominated by Orbital Sciences Corp. However, unlike the first OHB application - Hispasat's AG1 - the first SSTL mission will not be a demonstration flight, says Perkins, and ESA will have no role in its financing.

If the deal is finalized, SSTL would also provide Sri Lanka with the means to access and task the U.K.-based satellite maker's 22-meter-resolution multispectral UK DMC-2 spacecraft. In addition, the island nation would acquire a virtual-ground-station capability for training in interpreting data, and later purchase a permanent station. And by purchasing these data, Sri Lanka would gain a role in SSTL's disaster-monitoring constellation, which includes UK DMC-2.

Moreover, SSTL would ensure exchanges between Surrey University, which still owns a small share in SSTL, and academic institutions in Sri Lanka, and advise the government on creating a space agency. Although the country has demonstrated an interest in space - notably through the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies - it currently has no space capability.

The Sri Lanka MOU followed a preliminary Astrium agreement, revealed on Nov. 13, to provide a remote-sensing satellite system for Vietnam. Astrium would supply the system, VNREDSat-1 (for Vietnam natural resources, environment and disaster-monitoring satellite), within a long-term strategic cooperation framework, including technology transfer, training and technical assistance, says Astrium CEO Francois Auque. Its partner would be the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, which is responsible for creating a local remote-sensing capability.

The accord also calls for the supply of ground control, reception and processing stations, technical assistance and training, and integrating the country's existing multi-satellite Earth station into the system. The launch date and price tag were not given, but Vietnamese authorities previously said VNREDSat-1 would cost around $100 million and be launched in 2012. This would imply a microsatellite-based system similar to that supplied late last year to Chile. Vietnam had earlier turned to Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for its first communications satellite, Vinasat-1.

The two deals, coming on the heels of an Astrium contract in September with Kazakhstan for two surveillance spacecraft - one of which will be supplied by SSTL (AW&ST Oct. 12, p. 34) - highlight the continuing ability of Astrium and other European contractors to tap developing nations' desire to acquire an indigenous space capability.

In addition, the new contracts underscore the value of the SSTL acquisition, for which Astrium paid a hefty price. Together, the two companies have sold remote satellites to a long list of developing nations in recent years, including Algeria, China, Nigeria, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Photo Credit: ESA/SSTL