Intelsat, Viasat+Inmarsat, ESA, and SWISSto12 achieve major milestone in HummingSat development
September 24, 2024
Intelsat, Viasat+Inmarsat, the European Space Agency (ESA), and SWISSto12 have announced major progress on the development of the HummingSat product line, with Preliminary Design Reviews (PDR) meetings held on both the Intelsat 45 and Inmarsat 8 missions.
The HummingSat is smaller in size and reported to have lower costs compared to traditional Geostationary satellites. It is being developed in partnership with SWISSto12 using its Additive Manufacturing technology, and is supported by the ESA through a partnership project to which nine ESA member states have subscribed. This project falls under the framework of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems, ARTES programme.
Emile de Rijk, CEO and founder of SWISSto12, commented, “SWISSto12 and its partner ESA have put tremendous efforts into the design and optimisation of HummingSat over the last couple of years. I am delighted of what we have achieved together through the completion of our first PDR with a satellite design that combines both innovation, small size and lower cost while enabling competitive mission capabilities and uncompromised reliability for 15 year missions in GEO.”
As part of its partnership with ESA, SWISSto12 is developing and performing in-orbit validation of HummingSat with its two anchor customers: global satellite operators Intelsat and ViaSat+Inmarsat, who ordered respectively the first HummingSat on Intelsat 45 the programme and subsequent Inmarsat 8 programme.
Laurent Jaffart, ESA Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications said, “HummingSat exemplifies a successful ESA Partnership Project and European collaboration in commercial satcoms. Established in record time, the project benefits from a dedicated ESA team working closely with SWISSto12, including one of our most experienced engineers embedded with the industrial team in Switzerland. Following the success of previous ARTES Partnership Projects like Neosat and Novacom, HummingSat is poised to generate exceptional return on investment for European and Canadian states participating in the programme.”
Leveraging upon these first missions, SWISSto12 plans to capture a significant part of the expanding global market of small and flexible geostationary satellites. For satellites have already been sold with the first launch of Intelsat 45 expected to support Intelsat’s media and network customers. Subsequent Inmarsat 8 satellites will provide worldwide safety services and emergency communications for ships and aircraft.
At around the size of an industrial washing machine and a mass of around 1000kg, HummingSat is much smaller than conventional geostationary satellites. This makes them more affordable to build, and launch costs are reduced as they can piggyback on ride-share missions. SWISSto12’s flight-proven Additive Manufacturing technology and associated RF products will help boost payload performance, streamline the manufacturing process, and reduce the build time and cost of production.
Loid Saillard, VP Satellite Programs and Space Innovation at Intelsat, shared, “Congratulations to the SWISSto12 team for working to refine the design of their HummingSat product line that culminated with the successful completion of the PDR. SWISSto12 continues to grow their team with top talent and mature their satellite design in order to meet the Intelsat mission.”
Mark Dickinson, Head of Space Systems at ViaSat (acquired Inmarsat), stated, “We’re pleased to see the progress made by the high-calibre SWISSto12 team on the HummingSat design at the Inmarsat-8 PDR this summer. There continues to be outstanding collaboration between the SWISSto12, ESA and Viasat+Inmarsat teams. The HummingSat product will deliver on the economics offered by the GEO SmallSat solutions and we look forward to including the Inmarsat-8s in our fleet.”
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