On 2 June, after completion of the commissioning phase, the Hispasat 36W-1 (AG1) satellite was officially handed over to the operations team, a watershed moment that marks the start of the satellite’s operational life. 

Launched on 28 January, Hispasat AG1 is the first mission of the SmallGEO platform developed by OHB System AG (Germany) with the European Space Agency and HISPASAT. The satellite features the innovative RedSAT regenerative payload, which will allow HISPASAT to use the satellite’s power more flexibly and efficiently, significantly boosting its transmission capability with the concomitant reduction of communications costs. 

To support the 20 Ku-band transponders and up to 3 Kaband transponders, GMV has supplied Hispasat not only with a groundbreaking active antenna with reconfigurable beams but also the latest version of its Smart family of tools: smart rings and smart beams. The former seeks payload configuration alternatives in the event of any component failure and the latter offers the user total control over antenna alignment configuration while also showing a 3D map of the antenna boresight for checking purposes.

Both tools are fully integrated with the multi-satellite control and monitoring system, hifly®, and with the flight dynamics system, focusGEO, both supplied by GMV. For this satellite, moreover, hifly® has incorporated support for ESA’s new telemetry and telecommand protocol called Packet Utilisation Standard (PUS), already being phased into the new satellite models by other manufacturers.