Astrium and Thales Alenia Space to build BADR-7 for Arabsat

Arabsat has finalised the mission definition for the BADR-7 satellite and confirmed the in-orbit delivery contract.
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Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, who are jointly responsible for building the satellite and delivering it to orbit, have already started the build.
 
Astrium, the leading partner, will supply the Eurostar E3000 platform and integrate the satellites. Thales Alenia Space will design and build the communications payload.
 
The new satellite, the first in Arabsat’s sixth generation of satellites, will be co-located with other Arabsat satellites at the 26° East video hot spot known as BADR (pictured is BADR-6).
 
It will extend Arabsat’s in-orbit capacity at this location for direct-to-home television broadcast and telecommunications services, and will provide broadband services in Ka-band with spot beam coverage.
 
BADR-7 is based on the Astrium-built Eurostar E3000 platform and is able to operate up to 24 transponders in Ku-band and 24 spot beams in Ka-band, as well as three transponders in Ka-band for additional services.
 
Four deployable antennas and three fixed antennas will address service regions over a large coverage that includes the whole of MENA, South and North-West Africa and Central Asia.
 
BADR-7 will weigh 6100 kg at launch and have a spacecraft power of 12 kW at the end of its more than 15-year design life. It is planned for launch in late 2015.