Successful Launch for New Inmarsat Satellite

Inmarsat has successfully launched Alphasat - I-4A F4.

Alphasat was launched on an Ariane 5 ECA, the latest version of the Ariane 5 launcher, from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana at 20:54 BST on 25 July 2013 (16:54 Kourou local time). Arianespace confirmed a successful spacecraft separation at 27 minutes 45 seconds after launch and the Alphasat Mission Operations Team confirmed telemetry reception and that they have command of the satellite at 21:47 BST.

Inmarsat is the owner and operator of Alphasat, one of the most technically advanced telecommunications satellites ever constructed for civilian applications.

With a US$350 million investment from Inmarsat, Alphasat complements the company’s award-winning L-band satellite fleet, which has been powering global broadband connectivity for government and commercial customers on land, sea and in the air since 2009.

Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat, said, “Alphasat will strengthen our existing I-4 series satellite constellation, providing coverage over Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The launch demonstrates Inmarsat’s long-term commitment to L-band services, and marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Inmarsat’s flagship satellite fleet, bringing new capabilities both in terms of performance and resource availability”

Designed and manufactured by Astrium, Alphasat is one of the largest and most sophisticated European telecommunications satellites ever built. It is part of the European Space Agency (ESA) initiative to provide a new spacecraft platform (Alphabus) capable of carrying a large state of the art communications payload.

Developed by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space under a joint ESA and CNES contract, Alphabus allows the European space hardware manufacturing industry to address the top end of the telecom satellite market. It is also a showcase of Astrium’s capability in the areas of satellite mobile payloads and on-board digital signal processing, particularly in the UK.