Germany: At the International Space Congress (IAC) in Bremen, satellite manufacturer OHB System AG, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and space supplier Tesat-Spacecom (Tesat) announced their cooperation within the German space mission “Heinrich Hertz Satellite Mission”. Thereby OHB System AG is responsible for the project management, construction and launch of the satellite, DLR Space Administration for the project funding and Tesat for the core parts of the mission, for which they were contracted by OHB today.
The satellite “Heinrich Hertz” was commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Defense, and shall support – besides its scientific and technical mission – the operational satellite communication. To provide answers to the ongoing digitalization trend in times of Big Data and limitless data volumes, the satellite will perform a variety of experiments in communications, antenna and satellite technology. At the same time, DLR Space Administration will utilize the new, more agile and more efficient satellite platform SmallGEO, which through its design enables higher transmission capacities with low communication costs.
Beyond that, the SmallGEO platform provides optimal conditions for the actual heart of the satellite: its payload. As with OHB’s first SmallGEO mission, Hispasat W36-1, Tesat once again as payload prime is responsible for the design, construction and verification of the scientific-technical payload. Here, Tesat can draw on many years of experience in the design and manufacture of small and medium payloads for communication satellites. In addition, Tesat is responsible for the military repeater, supplying space-specific components, several technology demonstrators for verification in orbit and, with five innovative equipment developments, provides half of all technology supplies of the German space mission.
Heinrich Hertz makes an important contribution to the exchange of knowledge and experience between industry and science, and secures and strengthens the system capability for payloads of geostationary communication satellites (altitude 36,000 km) in Germany.
Furthermore, the mission ensures space-specific key knowledge for competitive, new products and highly qualified jobs, consistently implementing one of the goals of the Federal Government’s space strategy.
