NewSat achieves significant milestone for Jabiru-1 satellite construction with Lockheed Martin
Jeremy Dale Thompson
NewSat Limited (ASX: NWT), Australia’s satellite company, is pleased to advise of the successful completion of the Jabiru-1 Preliminary Design Review (PDR) by Lockheed Martin as announced on 18 June 2012. This is a major milestone for the Jabiru-1 Program’s development and a significant step towards the launch ofNewSat’s next generation Ka-band satellite.
Adrian Ballintine, NewSat Founder and CEO said: “Lockheed Martin is a global powerhouse in the world of space manufacturing and we are pleased to announce the completion of another significant milestone on the path to Jabiru-1’s 2014 launch. We would also like to thank Lockheed Martin for its continued support through the export credit agency funding process with the US Ex-Im Bank.”
During the five-day PDR, representatives from Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) and NewSat thoroughly reviewed the spacecraft’s design and advanced capabilities. The completion of the PDR milestone demonstrates that the design meets NewSat’s critical requirements to provide high-powered satellite capacity to enterprise and government customers, and advances the Jabiru-1 program into the Critical Design Review (CDR) phase.
Joseph Rickers, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems President said: “Throughout the week-long intensive design review, Lockheed Martin has demonstrated that the preliminary system design of Jabiru -1 is complete and the satellite is on track for an on-time delivery. The Preliminary Design Review milestone validates the Jabiru-1 program team’s progress to plan, as well as NewSat and Lockheed Martin’s excellent teamwork.”
LMCSS commenced construction of the Jabiru-1 satellite at its Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA facility in January 2012. The Jabiru-1 satellite utilises the A2100 spacecraft platform and will feature 50 Ka-band high-powered transponders configured in a variety of spot beams, regional beams and steerable beams to provide flexible communication solutions for a range of diverse applications. The satellite has been designed for a minimum service life of 15 years, with a total payload of 8.3 GHz and will provide 7.6 GHz of “new” Ka-band capacity to high demand regions over the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.
David Ball, NewSat CTO said: “It is very exciting to be a part of such an innovative satellite project with Lockheed Martin. The design of the Jabiru-1 satellite is based on Lockheed Martin’s proven A2100 spacecraft platform, configured with a range of flexible beam options. Jabiru-1’s advanced communications offering enables NewSat to provide truly customer-focused solutions to our enterprise and government clients.”
Jabiru-1’s construction is on schedule for launch in 2014 with Arianespace.
“The Jabiru-1 satellite project continues to track to plan. The PDR is now complete, binding pre-launch customer contracts have topped US$600 million and financial close is expected in late July,” Mr Ballintine said.