[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – A Swedish company that plans to build a geostationary telecommunications satellite has announced a contract with SpaceX on Oct. 16 for the launch of Falcon Heavy no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020.
Ovzon of Solna, Sweden, has not yet purchased the satellite, but paid Eutelsat $ 1.6 million earlier this year to move one of its satellites to an unspecified orbital location in Ovzon in order to preserve spectrum rights at this location.
Per Wahlberg, CEO of Ovzon, said in a statement that the purchase of the company's first satellite was "in the final stage" and that production of an advanced embedded processor had started earlier this month.
"The outsourcing of the launch supplier of our first Ovzon satellite is an important and exciting step for our company. SpaceX has proposed a very competitive solution with the Falcon Heavy launcher that will allow us to access the space reliably and quickly, "he said.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said the company was "honored that Ovzon chose SpaceX to launch the first of its satellites."
"We look forward to working closely on this important direct mission to GEO," she said in a statement.
Ovzon warned that the Falcon Heavy contract is "subject to certain contingencies and mutual termination clauses".
A launch at the end of 2020 will require the construction of a geostationary satellite within about two years, a feasible but tight deadline for most of the world's leading manufacturers.
Wahlberg co-founded Swe-Dish, a manufacturer of satellite communications terminals, in 1994. DataPath bought Swe-Dish in 2007 for $ 56 million, and Rockwell Collins bought DataPath in 2009 for $ 130 million. In 2014, Rockwell Collins sold the company for only $ 10 million to DataPath.
SpaceX launched the first Falcon Heavy in February 2018 with a red Tesla Roadster as a payload. The company's growing list of Falcon Heavy customers includes the US Air Force and fleet operators Arabsat, Intelsat and Inmarsat.
Source link
