Abu Dhabi-based Yahsat has announced that its third satellite will be a Brazil-focused high throughput bird that will see it cover South America for the first time.
The group expects to unveil Al Yah 3’s manufacturer “soon” to target a launch in…
Abu Dhabi-based Yahsat has announced that its third satellite will be a Brazil-focused high throughput bird that will see it cover South America for the first time.
The group expects to unveil Al Yah 3’s manufacturer “soon” to target a launch in 2016, when it will join a rush of operators flocking to the region to tap its soaring demand for capacity.
It said the new Ka-band satellite will cover more than 95% of the population of Brazil, which hosts the Olympic Games in 2016, while also expanding existing services across Africa.
The Al Yah 3 announcement follows the launch of Yahsat’s second bird Y1B in 2012, and its first Y1A in 2011.
“The launch of the company’s third satellite within less than a decade of operation is a clear signal of the UAE aerospace industry’s intentions for the future,” said Homaid Al Shemmari, CEO of aerospace and engineering services at Mubadala, an investment arm of the UAE government that owns Yahsat.
As reported earlier this month, Yahsat is understood to have already kicked off a broker tender for its next satellite.
Y1A and Y1B were insured under what Yahsat claims is the world’s first ever Shariah compliant space insurance policy, through UAE-based firms Methaq and ElseCo. UK-based Willis designed the takaful insurance coverage.
The company first revealed plans for a third satellite in an interview with SatelliteFinance back in 2011, when then deputy CEO Tareq Al Hosani laid out aspirations to become a medium-sized operator with 3-5 birds.
He said at the time that Yahsat would need to raise additional financing to launch further satellites.
Y1A and Y1B were backed by US$1.6bn of financing, of which US$1.2bn came from 14 undisclosed banks and the rest through Mubabala. BNP Paribas was Yahsat’s financial adviser for that deal.
Yahsat and Tareq Al Hosani, who is now an associate director at Mubabala, were unable to comment before the press deadline.
Notably, Yahsat was one of the seven operators to take part in Brazil’s recent auction of four orbital slots, but ultimately ended up empty-handed.
The available positions were instead snapped up by SES, Eutelsat and Hispamar, a joint venture between Spain’s Hispasat and Brazilian telco Oi.
It is not clear where Al Yah 3 will be located. According to the UAE’s ITU filings, possible locations that cover Latin America and Africa, and have a post-2016 regulatory deadline, are: -73, -70.5, -55, -45, -43, -28, -20, -17.5 and -9. But all of these are still in the coordination stage.
