OHB-System AG of Germany signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a European Small Geostationary Satellite platform for telecommunication missions, the organizations announced March 28.

The contract, valued at 100 million euros ($133.4 million) covers the first part of an initiative aimed at developing a generic, small geostationary platform to enable European players to compete on the commercial telecommunications market.

Initiated by OHB in 2003, the development of a geostationary platform has been established as a separate component of the long-term ESA schedule under the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (Artes-11) program, which was approved at the ministerial meeting of the ESA Council in December 2005.

Eight ESA member states are part of the program; other project members include Swedish Space Corp., Switzerland’s Oerlikon Space AG and Luxspace Sarl of Luxembourg.

The mission payload is due to be selected in late 2007 or early 2008 under an open tender process, and the satellite is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2010. OHB projects demand for up to eight satellites per year in the small geostationary market and will be able to supply at least one of its platforms per year.