SENER Aeroespacial awarded with a new contract for Airbus’ OneSat program

SENER Aeroespacial, a company of the SENER Group, has signed the contract to manufacture, assemble and test the recurring units of the user and gateway antenna’s low noise amplifiers (LNA), receivers and dedicated central power supply units (CPSU) for the OneSat product developed and manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space.

This contract completes the previous co-engineering phase dedicated to the design and qualification of the units customized to follow Airbus needs under the corresponding development contracts.

Also for the OneSat program, SENER Aeroespacial was awarded with several contracts:  the supply of the  telemetry, tracking and command (TTC) antennas; and, in mechanisms and actuators, the traditional area of expertise of SENER Aeroespacial, the rotary actuator, being the first electromechanical product designed by SENER Aeroespacial for the space industry that is series produced, with more than 90 units delivered; and the Ejection Mechanism, part of the SSD (Spacecraft Separation Device), manufactured, assembled and tested by SENER in Poland, a company of SENER Aeroespacial.

In this regard, SENER Aeroespacial has strengthened its collaboration with Airbus Defense and Space in the last years, with significant work as a key supplier in several satellites and programs, highlighting the contribution in OneSat, a new paradigm in reconfigurable satellites. This performance made the company to win, in October 2021, the Competitiveness Award during the ‘Suppliers Day’ held annually by Airbus Defence and Space to recognize its best suppliers. In 2019, SENER Aeroespacial also received the «Best Improver» award in the «Equipment & Systems» category for its excellent performance in two other important Airbus projects: Inmarsat-6 and METOP.

In words of the General Director of Space and Science of SENER Aeroespacial, Diego Rodriguez, after receiving the Competitiveness Award from Airbus: «We have doubled our efforts to grow with AIRBUS, in what is a clear case of successful collaboration in the aerospace environment. The results have been very satisfactory with relevant participations in both their institutional and Telecom satellites».

OneSat represents the paradigm of the mass production in the space market, which seems to be the future of the commercial space sector worldwide. According to Airbus, OneSat will revolutionize the telecommunications satellite market: unlike earlier satellites that were designed for specific missions, OneSat can be fully reconfigured while in orbit and is able to adjust its coverage area, capacity and frequency “on the fly” to meet changing mission scenarios.

For SENER Aeroespacial, being a major supplier for OneSat space mission is a further step in the intensive collaboration with Airbus that will allow both companies to achieve new joint goals.