Back

Print

H36W-1

SmallGEO Platform, Artist View

Hispasat 36W-1 (H36W-1) is the first mission to use SmallGEO, a small European GEO platform for communication applications established within ESA’s ARTES 11 program as a public-private partnership. Hispasat, the first user of this platform, finances the payload and will integrate H36W-1 into its existing fleet to provide Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands and Latin America with multimedia services. The payload consists of a traditional part using Ka- and Ku-band transmitters, and the new developed “Redsat” payload, which is reconfigurable and offers higher transmission speed, a better signal quality and flexible land coverage. The German company OHB System is in charge of an In-Orbit-Delivery to HSA and has contracted GSOC to perform the LEOP operations as well as the In-Orbit-Test of the satellite platform.

The new platform implies several challenges for the operations: adaptations and new developments have to be made for the ground operation systems and operation concepts such as:

• Monitoring and control systems adaptations for the new platform
• Development of new operation procedures
• First LEOP for GSOC using a Ku-band ground station network
• First operations at GSOC of a GEO satellite using electrical propulsion

During the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), the spacecraft was checked and tested by the operations teams in Oberpfaffenhofen and  Weilheim and positioned in the geostationary orbit. Tests, functional and redundancy checks as well as necessary calibrations were limited to the satellite platform during this phase. Then GSOC - in cooperation with the Spanish communications satellite operator HISPASAT - carried out the in-orbit-testing (IOT), which also included checking the payload, i.e. the transponders and the various antennas. After successful completion of the IOT, the control of the satellite was handed over to Hispasat and OHB on 02.06.2017. Since then the mission has been operated by Hispasat in Arganda del Rey. H36W-1 joins the list of geostationary satellites operated by the GSOC, which among other things includes more than ten successfully launched communication satellites for the operator EUTELSAT.