Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Monday, October 19, 2020

Argentina’s 3rd satellite construction progressing

The investment will be US$ 250 million and officials estimate that it will pay itself off in five years. Arsat president, Pablo Tognetti, explained to Convergencia that the satellite, with an estimated useful life of 15 years, would bill about US$ 750 million.

The third geostationary satellite of Argentina has been designed and the planning of its construction is already completed, which would begin at the beginning of 2021. The launch is planned for the second half of 2023 and it will be placed in the 81° West orbit at the beginning of 2024. The future satellite will transmit in Ka Band and will provide Internet service connectivity in isolated areas of Argentina and neighboring countries.

As soon as the current government took office, it began to inform through authorities of the Innovation area and those of Arsat, that the Argentine satellite plan would be resumed, with a new satellite model that the Rio Negro manufacturer Invap has been developing in recent years (the plan had started in 2015).

Then it continued, at a more leisurely pace, although the Juntos por el Cambió government discontinued the manufacturing established by the Argentine Satellite Plan Law, arguing that Arsat did not have genuine income to meet the investment required for the construction of Arsat 3. The measure led to the dissolution of some work teams and the continuity of a cycle of research and development of science and technology that had put the country among a handful of only eight nations in the world with the capacity to build geostationary satellites.

The new model of the device, which will be called SG 1-, will require a US$ 250 million investment until it is orbiting. The figure is the final sum of the accumulated of the entire stage of construction, tests, insurance, and transfer, launch, to mention the most important expenses. Most of the investment will be through a loan from the Andean Development Corporation (CAF, in Spanish), which must be dealt with at the meeting of the Board of Directors of that regional body in December.

Arsat president, Pablo Tognetti, told Convergencialatina that the satellite, with an estimated useful life of 15 years, would bill about US$ 750 million. That same amount should be paid by the national State if satellites from foreign fleets were hired during those 15 years to provide connectivity to more than 200,000 rural homes and productive centers in remote areas, where reaching with another type of technology, such as fiber optics, would be difficult and very expensive. “It is a financial issue. The investment will pay for itself in 5 years,” said Tognetti.

At present, it is estimated that Arsat, with its two satellites orbiting at 78° and 81° West, has a turnover of about US$ 45 million a year, according to current values ??(they fell by about 20% in the last five years).

The SG 1 will have electric propulsion, which saves 1,500 kilos of chemical fuel weight from previous models. To power the electricity generation will install several solar panels.

At launch, the future satellite will be left by the launcher in an intermediate orbit about 250 km from Earth, which is the perigee of an ellipse. From there it continues with its own propulsion until reaching a circular orbit, 36,000 km from earth. The trip to the definitive route takes between five and six months. Once it is located in orbit, an adjustment period begins and would enter service after March 2024.

To guarantee the use of the 81° W orbit, Argentina must put a temporary satellite there before January 2022. The next transfer of a temporary device has already been agreed with an international satellite company. The cost of this operation will be around US$ 9 million: the device will remain for three months in the orbit that is concessioned to the country, thus reaffirming the right of use. For the same purpose, in 2018 the previous government had contracted the Astra satellite; the validation of the orbit only lasts 4 years and therefore it will be necessary for another device to orbit.

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