The Spanish military satellite SPAINSAT NG I is now traveling towards space. The launch of Europe's most advanced secure communications satellite began promptly at 8:34 p.m. on Wednesday from Florida - 2:34 a.m. on Thursday in Spain - and half an hour later, it was confirmed to be a success. It was already nighttime in Florida when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket placed it into orbit from the historic Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, the site of missions to the Moon.
In this Falcon 9 launch, it was decided not to recover the first stage of the rocket due to the mission's design, as explained by Santiago Bolibar Piñeiro, Chairman of the Board of Hisdesat, the company leading this military program developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense. "It's a matter of profitability. We are interested in placing the satellite as close as possible to the orbit it will be working in - at 36,500 km from Earth - and for that, we need all the remaining fuel that the first stage of the rocket would require to return to Earth in a controlled manner."
SPAINSAT NG I will work in conjunction with its twin, SPAINSAT NG II, which will be launched in September or October, also with a rocket from Elon Musk. In total, Spain will invest 2 billion euros in this strategic program that will provide secure communications for the Spanish Armed Forces, our country's partners, and NATO.
"It is a success of Spanish society that guarantees the security of citizens and the best national defense," declared the Secretary of State for Defense, Amparo Valcarce, after the launch, for whom this 2 billion euro investment is "an investment in peace and security." In addition to Valcarce, the Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Force, Francisco Braco, and the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Antonio Piñeiro, among other civilian and military authorities, attended the SpaceX launch.
"Our Armed Forces operate in different countries under the mandate of the United Nations, the EU, or NATO, but in all those operations outside of Spain, they need communications that cannot be attacked," the Secretary of State pointed out in a meeting with journalists. "When all control systems depend so much on communications, being left blind and deaf, not knowing the situation you are in, makes the difference between success or a disaster of great proportions."
Although this program has been in development for 15 years, "today everything was at stake, and we can say that we have won the game by putting a satellite into space that will be used for secure communications. Spanish, European citizens, and our NATO partners can feel safer because the operations and communications carried out by our armed forces will also be conducted with high security standards."
The Secretary of State for Defense also defended the investment in the space sector, considering it an investment in the future: "A country that is not in space will lose a fundamental race for progress," she stated before highlighting that the success of this program is also the success of the Spanish aerospace industry.
Thus, 45% of this innovative satellite has been developed by Spanish companies in a consortium that includes Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Crisa, Alter Technology, Arquimea, GMV, HV Sistemas, Indra, Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía, and Sener.
For Basilio Garrido, Director of Operations and Programs at Hisdesat, this military program "is a milestone for Spain because we will have a very broad and superior capacity for secure communications compared to what we have today."
"We will have three operating bands, currently we only have X-band, and now we will also have K-band and UHF-band, all three simultaneously, with one of them having much higher capabilities than the current ones. With active antennas in reception and transmission, we will have many more coverage areas on Earth interconnected," Garrido explained. In all aspects measured, Garrido says, the SPAINSAT program will represent a very significant leap, including the level of protection against interference and high-altitude nuclear explosions.
"There are three fundamental characteristics in communication satellites: the coverage you can provide, the bandwidth, and the power, because if you have a lot of bandwidth but no power, it is also not useful. We will have approximately 10 times more bandwidth and power compared to the current satellites we have," Garrido stated.
With Spain's current military satellites, Spain already provides service to other countries, but this will be the first one to also provide service to NATO: "The agreement with NATO has already been signed, and they are eagerly awaiting us to enter service," Basilio Garrido pointed out.
Despite the successful launch, it will still be necessary to wait almost half a year for it to become operational, presumably at the beginning of the second semester of this year, as indicated by Miguel Ángel García Primo, General Director of Hisdesat: "Gradually, it will deploy its panels, its robotic arms to move the engines, and from there, a phase that lasts five and a half months called Launch and Early Operations Phase (LEOP) will begin. That is the time it takes to circularize the satellite's orbit, which will operate at 36,500 kilometers, the geostationary orbit. And from there, the operational life will begin."
The second satellite, SPAINSAT NG II, is in the thermal vacuum chamber at the Airbus Toulouse plant, where the final checks are being carried out before the scheduled launch in September or October. When both are operational, starting in January or February 2026, they will cover two-thirds of the Earth's surface.