Mexican satellite operator Satmex has revealed that it has signed an agreement with US aerospace and defence contractor Raytheon for the addition of a hosted payload on its all-electric Satmex-9 satellite.
The hosted payload will provide geostationary…
Mexican satellite operator Satmex has revealed that it has signed an agreement with US aerospace and defence contractor Raytheon for the addition of a hosted payload on its all-electric Satmex-9 satellite.
The hosted payload will provide geostationary support to the Wide-Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the US Federal Aviation Administration’s satellite-based air navigation system that uses GPS signals for greater coverage and accuracy.
Raytheon, which has played a key role in WAAS since its inception in 2003, proposed using a hosted payload on a commercial satellite early last year. The FAA then conducted a study to compare the costs for leasing a hosted payload versus buying and operating an entire satellite, and determined the use of a leased service was more cost-effective.
The WAAS Program Office subsequently issued Raytheon with an authorization to proceed with phase 1 of the Satmex-9 contract on 11 July 11 2013. A contract award meeting with Raytheon was then conducted in early August and the first technical exchange meeting and integrated baseline review took place in mid-October.
Satmex and Raytheon then finally signed the commercial agreement in December. Financial details have not been disclosed.
Based on Boeing’s all-electric propulsion 702-SP platform, Satmex-9 will hold 48 Ku-band transponders and is to be co-located with Satmex 8 at 116.8W. The spacecraft is due to be launched by SpaceX at the end of 2015 and is anticipated to have an in-orbit date of August 2016.
The hosted payload is expected to be integrated into WAAS by September 2017. Once this operational integration takes place the two parties will begin a 10-year service lease contract.
Satmex-9 is the second 702SP satellite that Satmex has ordered from the Boeing, having taken up the option for a second satellite in mid-2013.
It is a part of a four satellite joint procurement agreement that the Mexican satellite operator and its Asian peer, Asia Broadcast Satellite, signed with Boeing back in March 2012. Satmex and ABS initially ordered Satmex 7 and ABS-3A respectively with ABS promptly exercising its option for a second satellite, ABS-2A.
