Thales Alenia Space: “An Electric Propulsion System Launched Later This Year”

Thales Alenia Space is one of the top satellite manufacturers competing in an uber-competitive marketplace with the likes of Space Systems Loral (SSL), Astrium, Boeing, and Orbital Sciences among others. Sami Ben-Amor, Thales Alenia Space’s product line management director for telecommunications admitted that 2012 was a “medium” year for the company and attributes the low performance to a drop off in the number of satellites ordered.

“In 2012, there were around 18 orders for geostationary satellites. In previous years, the average turned around 24 to 25 satellites ordered. In 2013, we may have the same amount of orders than in 2012. There will be fierce competition for orders this year. There is less demand for satellites and more competitors. In 2012, Boeing came back very impressively in the world-wide competition,” Ben-Amor said.

    One of the big questions is whether other satellite manufacturers will follow Boeing’s lead and offer more satellite options based on electric propulsion. Ben-Amor said this is something that the company is working on but that, while praising Boeing for its “innovative” approach, Thales Alenia Space is still trying to understand what benefits it could bring to its customers.

     “When you talk to the big players in the industry such as Intelsat, SES, or Eutelsat, each one of them has different views on how critical electric propulsion will be. Some will still want chemical propulsion systems (typically three years chemical propulsion back-up and faster orbit raising in some cases). We are discussing with customers and we will prepare our own solution within the company. We are working on new products; it is a serious evolution in the market, but I do believe that chemical propulsion is here to stay for the coming years, but we will also see some hybrid systems in play. We expect to bring an electric propulsion system to market later in the year. We are working hard on reusing some existing technologies that we already have. One of my missions is to define our technology roadmap for the next five years,” Ben-Amor said.

    Certainly, with a downturn in orders, and new trends emerging in the market, the satellite manufacturing business has got ever more complex. Ben-Amor admits one of the company’s main objectives will be to examine the impact of Intelsat’s EpicNG initiative.

     “When you see what Intelsat is doing, it is very interesting in terms of how they are using technologies. We have also been pursuing some similar ideas with European customers. So, we want to bring much more flexibility than before, which could involve software-defined payloads, for example. I think we are going to see much more flexibility on the payloads,” he said.

    The satellite manufacturing market will ultimately look more like the military satcom markets, according to Ben-Amor. “You will see a much wider range of satellites than you have in previous years with a greater mix of electrical and chemical propulsion. I personally don’t think there will be a huge market for satellites based only on electrical propulsion but I might be wrong. In the coming three years, I think the missions and payloads for commercial market will more and more look like the military market in terms of technologies and flexibility. That will be the main trend,” he said.