Rendering of the OmanSat satellite, based on the Airbus OneSat platform. Photo: Airbus

Airbus has won a contract to build OmanSat-1 for Space Communication Technologies (SCT), Oman’s national satellite operator. Oman has a population of around 5.5 million people. This deal represents a key milestone for the country, as OmanSat-1 is its first dedicated national satellite. Airbus announced the contract award on Nov. 24.

The satellite will deliver high Ka-band capacity primarily over Oman including its economic waters and the whole of the Middle East, East Africa and Asia. The fully reconfigurable design will allow SCT to meet customer needs for high-throughput services including government and private networks, oil and gas, banking, broadband, maritime and aero connectivity.

Airbus will deliver an end-to-end fully integrated solution, including design and manufacture of the satellite, ground segment software components as well as the launch service.

“It is a privilege to sign such a contract, which will finally put the name of the Sultanate of Oman in space, as one of the regional players for satellite operators. Our selection of OneSat manufactured by Airbus, will mean that SCT will operate the latest software-defined satellite with full flexibility, and high throughput Ka-band, and offer competitive services to most of the verticals in the targeted markets, and ability to access new markets due to the flexibility in beam forming,” Salim Al Alawi, CEO of SCT, said in a statement.

This is the 10th satellite under contract for Airbus’ OneSat spacecraft product line. The most recent OneSat order was Thaicom in 2023. Airbus has had a number of delays and charges on the OneSat program and none have been delivered so far. Inmarsat, now part of Viasat, placed the first order in 2019 for three satellites, Inmarsat GX7, 8 & 9. According to Viasat’s latest update, those satellites are expected to enter service in 2027.