The largest European telecommunications satellite of all time is already in orbit

A few weeks ago, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched Alphasat, the largest and most sophisticated European telecommunications satellite, from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. The satellite was engineered and built by Astrium, with a public-private partnership between the ESA and Inmarsat, primarily to expand Inmarsat’s existing global mobile network.

It was also the first flight of Alphabus, the new European telecommunications satellite, developed by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space in partnership with the ESA and the French Space Agency (CNES).

Alphasat is also carrying four technology demonstration payloads: an environmental and radiation testing sensor from Efacec (Portugal); the Aldo Paraboni Q/V-band experiment from Thales Alenia Space and Space Engineering (Italy); a star tracker from Jena-Optronik (Germany); and the laser communication terminal from TESAT (Germany), provided by the DLR German Aerospace Centre.