Yahsat to exercise option with Airbus for additional satellite

Thuraya 4-NGS satellite (pictured) will be launched in 2024 onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. (Thuraya)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based companies Yahsat and Thuraya will exercise their contract option with Airbus for an additional dual-use telecommunications satellite, Sulaiman Al Ali, chief commercial officer (CCO) at Yahsat and CEO at Thuraya, told Janes at IDEX 2023, held in Abu Dhabi from 20 to 24 February.

The satellite – Thuraya 5-NGS – will be identical to the 4-NGS telecommunications satellite being developed by Airbus. Yahsat and Thuraya are managing and will operate the satellites, which are intended to deliver higher capacity and improved coverage across Europe, Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East for defence, government, and commercial customers.

An overall business case for Thuraya 5-NGS is under discussion, Al Ali said. He was unable to provide a definitive answer as to when the contract option would be exercised, although he did note that it might be applied in less than five years' time.

Thuraya 4-NGS and 5-NGS will be based on Airbus' Eurostar Neo platform, incorporating a large 12 m L-band antenna, provided by L3Harris, and a payload with onboard processing, which will provide up to 3,200 channels with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams, Airbus added. The 4-NGS is scheduled for launch in 2024.