On January 9, an Antonov plane took off from Toulouse bound for Florida with an extremely delicate and valuable cargo for Spain: the most advanced secure communications satellite in Europe and one of the most cutting-edge in the world of its kind. It is called SPAINSAT NG I, and if the weather or any last-minute technical issue does not prevent it, it will take off this Thursday, January 30, from Cape Canaveral.
Spain has entrusted the launch of its most sophisticated military telecommunications satellite to Elon Musk by hiring a Falcon 9 rocket from his company SpaceX to put it into orbit at the end of 2022. Representing the Spanish government on this strategic mission for our country will be Amparo Valcarce, Secretary of State for Defense, and Matías González Martín, Secretary General of Telecommunications at the Ministry for Digital Transformation.
"It is the most important secure communications satellite developed in Europe, probably on par with the best in the world, including those from the US," says Miguel Ángel García Primo, CEO of Hisdesat, the operator of government satellites leading this ambitious public-private mission. The program consists of two twin satellites that will work together: the SPAINSAT NG I being launched this week, and the SPAINSAT NG II, scheduled for launch in September or October. Both satellites will replace Spain-Sat and XTAR-EUR, currently used for the same purpose.
This new military satellite will provide secure communications for 15 years for the Spanish Armed Forces, the European Commission, NATO, and the Governments of Spain's allies. As Miguel Ángel García Primo highlights, currently only four nations in the Alliance - the US, UK, France, and Italy - "are capable of providing secure communications services according to the rigorous standards of NATO," so with this military program, "Spain will join that restricted club of countries."
But also, he assures, this launch represents "a milestone for the Spanish space sector as it is the most important program that its industry has undertaken at all levels, due to the budget, the size of the satellites, the innovation they carry, and also the participation of the Spanish industry." Our country had never launched a satellite with such technological complexity and size - it weighs 6.1 tons and is 7.2 meters tall. It is so large that it barely fit into the cargo hold of the large Ukrainian Antonov plane that transported it to the US, as reviewed by the Hisdesat executive.
Almost half of the satellite has been developed by this consortium of Spanish companies, including Hisdesat, Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Crisa, Alter Technology, Arquimea, GMV, HV Sistemas, Indra, Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía, and Sener. In total, nearly twenty Spanish companies, universities, and research centers have contributed to the new Defense communications system.
"It has been a very complex program, with many challenges that we have overcome and that has demonstrated that the public-private collaboration model between the Ministry of Defense and Hisdesat has worked perfectly," highlights Miguel Ángel García Primo about this space mission, which also had the collaboration of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, as well as the Spanish Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and the Ministry of Science within a public-private collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Hisdesat, called Pacis 3.
To make the SPAINSAT NG space program a reality, five years of intense work were needed - amid the Covid pandemic and the War in Ukraine - and an investment that will amount to a total of 2 billion euros for the two twin satellites, of which 1.4 billion have been provided by the Ministry of Defense and the rest by Hisdesat. According to Miguel Ángel García Primo's estimate, approximately 75% of the investment will remain in our country.
The satellite has been insured in case of any incident during the launch in Cape Canaveral: "It is fully covered, but it has been complicated because the space insurance market is very challenging at the moment. There have been several very significant failures in the same period that have led to requests for million-dollar figures. Certain actors have exited this market, and prices have risen," explains the CEO of Hisdesat.
However, another important Spanish satellite, the SEOSAT-Ingenio, was not insured, which was destroyed on November 17, 2020, due to a failure of the European Vega rocket that was going to put it into orbit, along with the French satellite Taranis. Valued at around 200 million euros, the SEOSAT-Ingenio was the first space system designed, developed, and operated entirely by the Spanish aerospace industry. The mission of this Earth observation satellite was to take high-resolution images of the Earth to create maps, expedite responses to environmental disasters, or monitor land use, water, and migratory flows. The rocket accident operated by Arianespace occurred eight minutes after takeoff from French Guiana and as revealed a few weeks later in the investigation, it was due to a human error that led to the incorrect connection of cables in a component in the upper stage of the rocket.
The decision to hire an American Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX instead of a European rocket to launch the twin satellites SPAINSAT NG was mainly due to the crisis of European launchers in recent years, specifically the delay in the development of the Ariane 6, which made its first flight last July, a year after its predecessor, the Ariane 5, was retired. The inaugural flight of the Ariane 6 was considered a success by the European Space Agency (ESA) officials, despite a technical failure in the final phase that diverted its orbit and prevented the upper stage from reentering the atmosphere to be destroyed, as planned. The next mission of Europe's largest rocket was scheduled for late 2024 but has not yet taken place due to the detection of some anomalies.
Due to their large size, the SPAINSAT NG satellites could only be launched on an Ariane rocket, as they do not fit on a Vega or a reused Soyuz, and these are no longer available for European missions since the War in Ukraine began.
The obvious alternative to the Ariane 6 was a Falcon 9, which has become the main launcher internationally, as in 2024 alone, these reusable SpaceX rockets have launched over 130 private and public missions, with great reliability.
The lack of launchers was not the only obstacle faced by the SPAINSAT NG program, whose contract was signed in the summer of 2019. As the Hisdesat director reviews, "its development has taken place in a rather unfavorable environment, first due to the Covid pandemic and then due to the war in Ukraine, which caused a disruption in the supply chain." This forced a complete change of the Russian components that the satellite was going to carry, such as the ionic engine. Both crises delayed the launch of SPAINSAT NG I by a year.
After spending a year in the clean room of Thales Alenia Space in Tres Cantos (Madrid), the satellite's communications module was transferred to the Airbus plant in Toulouse, where the assembly, integration, and testing of the satellite took place. And from there, it departed for the US.
"We feel very happy and satisfied with what we have achieved in this ambitious project. We are talking about the most advanced secure communications satellite in Europe today, and over 45% has been done by our companies and engineers," values Enrique Granell, responsible for the SPAINSAT NG program in the Spanish division of Airbus, the company that led the satellite's innovative antenna system.
These are active X-band transmission and reception antennas: "We have developed them in collaboration with other Spanish sector companies, which allows the industrial ecosystem to be maintained and capable of participating in other projects. That is why SPAINSAT is a driving program for the Spanish industry," Granell points out.
"Their flexibility and resilience" are the two characteristics that make these antennas so special, as summarized by this Airbus engineer. "Traditionally, communication satellites have had antennas that pointed to a specific location on Earth, and it is initially difficult to adapt them to the conditions and needs of each moment. With these new antennas, we aim for that pointing to be changeable at any time without moving parts, that is, electronically. They are intelligent antennas in the sense that, through a control application, you can specify where they should point, and it does so automatically. Depending on the operational needs of the end-user, the satellite can be configured for the antennas to point to the necessary locations and avoid those that are not needed."