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Sener takes part in SpainSat NG-I, the satellite that will reinforce secure communications for the Spanish armed forces

21/01/2025

SpainSat NG-I will provide secure and reliable communications for the Spanish armed forces, reinforcing the country’s technological and strategic capacity in space; it will have advanced technologies for protection against attempts at interference and spoofing and will be protected against high-altitude nuclear phenomena.

Among other elements, Sener has been responsible for the design and manufacture of the front-end of the new DRA X-band antennas, both for transmission and reception, which will allow the transmission capacity of current satellites to be multiplied by 16.

The launch of SpainSat NG-I, Hisdesat’s advanced secure communications satellite, will take place on January 29 from Cape Canaveral, in the United States. The engineering and technology industrial group Sener has participated in its development, in collaboration with the rest of the participants in the program, leading companies in the industry.

Sener has designed, manufactured and carried out the tests of several of the elements that make up the satellite’s active X-band transmitting and receiving antennas. These antennas integrate, among others, 120 DSSPA (dual solid-state power amplifiers) and 120 DLNA (dual low-noise amplifiers), both in X-band.

In addition, Sener has supplied 6 sets of steerable reflectors, Mechanical Reflector Assembly (MRA) for the Ka-band communications system, installed on a deployable panel, with three types of antennas and with an angular movement range of the antenna of +/- 5º. These reflectors are fed by several feeders, including the horn, polarizer and guide routing, which have also been supplied by Sener.

Additionally, and for each satellite, Sener has delivered a pair of S-band antennas (circular polarizations on the right and left) and a global X-band TCR antenna with both polarizations (with transmission and reception functions integrated in the same antenna).

Finally, Sener has actively participated in the satellite’s ultra-high frequency or UHF antenna, developing the three-channel OMUX, which filters and groups the outputs of the corresponding amplifiers before attacking the satellite’s UHF antenna. The handling of high powers at low frequencies for space applications made the design of this equipment a first-class challenge.

All these elements will help ensure that, once in orbit, SpainSat NG-I can provide secure and reliable communications for the Spanish armed forces, reinforcing the country’s technological and strategic capacity in space. The satellite will cover a wide area, spanning from the United States and South America to the Middle East, including Africa and Europe, and reaching Singapore. With an operational lifespan of 15 years, it incorporates advanced technologies for protection against interference and spoofing attempts and will be reinforced and protected against high-altitude nuclear phenomena.

Sener has extensive experience in communications for the space market. It has supplied antennas and radio frequency equipment, both active and passive, to the main satellite manufacturers and space agencies for use in navigation, telecommunications, exploration and Earth observation. It has provided more than 10,000 pieces of equipment and subsystems on board 1,400 satellites in LEO, GEO, MEO orbits and for launchers.

In the words of Diego Rodríguez, Director of Space and Science at Sener, “we are proud to be part of this program and therefore to participate in the milestone that the successful completion of a program such as SpainSat NG represents for Hisdesat and our industry, undoubtedly one of the most advanced in its category in the world.”

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