Page 17 - hisdeSAT annual report 2011

ABOUT HISDESAT

2.2 The HISDESAT satellite At international level, secure communica- Earth Observation

tion services are provided to the US Defence
system Department, to the Ministries of Defence The year 2007 saw the launch of the Na-
of Belgium and Norway, to the Danish Na-
tional Satellite Earth Observation Pro-
vy and, through the investee company Xtar
between the Ministries of Defence and In-
LLC, to the US State Department and diverse gramme (PNOTS), fruit of the collaboration
agencies of the US Government. dustry, Tourism and Trade.

System of Secure Communications a large part of Asia. Between both satellites, Currently, HISDESAT is in PNOTS comprises two satellites, Paz and In-
HISDESAT provides its secure communication HISDESAT has the development phase genio, currently under development, with
The national programme of governmen- services to two thirds of the earth’s surface. of the new communi- the two space observation technologies,
tal communications uses the SpainSat and consolidated its cations satellite, His- radar (SAR) and optic, for both military
Xtar-Eur satellites. To operate these satellites, there are ground NorSat, which will be and civilian use, capable of providing both
control centres in Arganda del Rey (Madrid) offer of secure jointly managed with nocturnal and daytime images in any mete-
SpainSat’s 30ºW orbital position allows si- and Maspalomas (Canary Islands) in the case the Norwegian Ministry orological conditions. With this programme,
multaneous coverage of most of Europe, of SpainSat; and in Ottawa (Canada) and Mt. communications, of Defence. This satel- Spain becomes the first European country to
North Africa and some areas of the Middle Jackson (Virginia, USA) for Xtar-Eur. lite will be placed in a have a dual observation and dual use sys-
East. On the other side of the Atlantic cov- both nationally and Spanish orbital position tem. The Paz satellite with radar technology
erage extends to South and Central Ameri- Both satellites have a minimum 15-year with coverage from the is focussed fundamentally on attending to
ca and a large part of North America. It uses lifespan and the start of their operation in internationally Atlantic to South East security and defence needs.
14 13 X-band transponders and one high-pow- the year 2006 thus meets the operational 15 Asia and it will have 40
ered Ka-band transponder, thereby estab- requirements of the Spanish Ministry of De- active transponders on the military X and The Ingenio satellite, with optic technol-
lishing secure quality communications. fence through to the year 2021. In addition, Ka governmental frequency, and will com- ogy, is mainly used to satisfy the needs of
services are also being provided to other na- plement the secure communications system civilian users. It is run by the Ministry of In-
The Xtar-Eur satellite has 12 X-band tran- tional government bodies such as the Min- now in operation. dustry and by the CDTI, while the European
sponders and from its 29ºE orbital position istry of Foreign Affairs, the Home Office and Space Agency (ESA) is responsible for over-
provides coverage from Brazil to Indonesia, the CSIC (National Research Council). seeing the manufacturing contract.
including Europe, Africa, the Middle East and
HISDESAT is responsible for the launch into
orbit and commercial exploitation of both
SEcurE communIcATIonS SySTEm of the observation system’s satellites, in
collaboration with INTA, which will provide
the ground segment.
EArTH obSErvATIon SySTEm