Astrium Awards EMS $25 Million for Three Inmarsat Satellite Antennas

EMS Technologies, Inc. says it's been chosen by Astrium to supply three combined transceiver antenna feeds for the Inmarsat broad-band global area network (B-GAN) program. The contract is worth $25 million and will run until March 2002; hardware will be supplied by the EMS Space & Technology Group in Montreal. B-GAN will consist of three I-4 satellites, two of which will be launched in 2003, with a third earmarked as a ground spare. Once in orbit, each satellite will generate 200 spot beams through the EMS antenna feeds. These feeds will give corporate customers high-speed (432 kps) Internet access, video-on-demand, video conferencing, fax and e-mail across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.