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UK flagship telecommunications satellite launched
According to the BBC, a telecommunications satellite has gone into orbit that UK industry hopes will help maintain its global leadership in the sector.
A quarter of the world's big telecoms spacecraft are manufactured in Britain, and the new Quantum platform is billed as a next-generation product.
It's fully software-defined, meaning it can be reconfigured in space to meet changing market conditions.
Quantum was launched on an Ariane-5 rocket from French Guiana.
It will be manoeuvred to a position 36,000km above the equator, just east of Somalia, from where it will serve principally North African and Middle Eastern customers.
Although the manufacturing of Quantum has been led from the UK, it is the French, Paris-based operator Eutelsat that owns the spacecraft.
The Quantum satellite weighed about 3.5 tonnes at launch/ESA-Manuel PedoussautEutelsat is positioning Quantum in an orbital slot at 48 degrees East, but the company knows the spacecraft could be moved anywhere around the globe and still fulfil its mission.
"This ability to adapt to changes, or to establish new markets, will result in a significantly more efficient use of the satellite's resources," said Frédéric Piro, Eutelsat's Quantum programme manager.
Elodie Viau is the UK-based director of Esa's telecoms directorate. She said the products that came out of her R&D department were a good example of how spending in space benefited the wider economy.
"The Euroconsult financial, social and economic health study of 2019 predicted this Eutelsat quantum project would have €20 of general return for each euro invested," she noted.
Friday's Ariane-5 rocket also lofted the Star One D2 satellite. This 6.1-tonne spacecraft is owned by Brazilian operator Embratel and will provide internet connections to Central and South America.
Source: BBC
Image source: BBC-Arianespace
