Hispasat's Amazonas Nexus incorporates Pentagon's secret communications software

The 13th satellite of Hispasat, Spain's leading commercial satellite communications operator, is already travelling through space. Its full name is Amazonas Nexus and it is the company's first satellite whose propulsion is totally ionic -also called electric- and which inaugurates a new commercial and technological era for the company. 

Right now, Amazonas Nexus is slowly but surely making its way to its final destination at orbital position 61° West and 36,000 kilometres above sea level. There it will move in sync with the Earth, remaining over Brazilian territory until the ion source that powers its engines runs out in about 15 years. 

The new device offers direct connection to high-performance Ku-band Internet "on North Atlantic shipping and air transport routes between America and Europe, connectivity to remote areas such as Greenland and the Amazon, and even secure communications," says Hispasat CEO Miguel Angel Panduro, who will be appointed in October 2019.

Amazonas Nexus will replace and expand the offer of Amazonas 2, which has been in space since October 2009. The company says it has already reached commercial agreements with Nexus covering the long-term lease of 60% of its transmission capacity. One of them, starting when it enters service next summer, will provide secure communications to the US Department of Defence. 

Hispasat won a contract in June 2020 with US operator Artel LLC, a Pentagon-certified company dedicated to integrating global communications networks capable of resisting jamming, eavesdropping and hostile spoofing.

The Spanish 4.5-tonne craft has been fitted with Pathfinder 2 mission software, an advanced encryption system that operates on 108 MHz and meets strict CNSSP-12 standards. These rules are in line with the US National Security Policy, which ensures the secrecy of information flowing through the space systems that Washington uses to support its national security missions. 

The Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) dictates the stringent measures that the Pentagon has imposed on the Spanish satellite's Ka-band telemetry and telecontrol. This ensures that voice and data communications between the Pentagon's top political and military officials are covered by a very high degree of secrecy. 

The Nexus also carries the Greensat equipment of Tusass, Greenland's national communications company. It serves to provide internet services to citizens in remote villages on the large island in the far north of Europe, to provide communications to mining companies and to support the country's emergency broadcasts. It provides the operator Intelsat with Ku-band capacity to provide connectivity to aircraft in flight in the Americas and in the Atlantic air corridors.

The vector chosen to take Nexus into space was the American Falcon 9 launcher from SpaceX, a company founded and led by tycoon Elon Musk, the recent owner of Twitter. The reliable Falcon 9 took off from the space base at Cape Canaveral (Florida) at 02:32 in the early hours of 7 January, Spanish peninsular time, and some 33 minutes later separated from the rocket "at an altitude of 300 kilometres", confirmed Panduro.

The company's top management, headed by Miguel Angel Panduro, travelled to Cape Canaveral. On behalf of the corporation Red Eléctrica (Redeia) - which owns 89.68% of Hispasat's shares - Beatriz Corredor, president of the business group since February 2020 and former Minister of Housing (April 2008-October 2010) in the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was present. 

Also present at the take-off were the Secretary General for Innovation of the Ministry of Science, Teresa Riesgo, and the President of the Space Council and Commissioner of the Aerospace PERTE, Miguel Belló. 

Official Hispasat sources have denied the presence in Cape Canaveral of the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, María González Veracruz. At 10:37 am on 7 February, the aforementioned organisation issued a tweet in which it stated that "the launch of @hispasat's #AmazonNexus high-performance geostationary satellite has been a success. @Seteleco has witnessed firsthand this milestone for the satellite industry". 

One of the keys to Amazonas Nexus is its electric propulsion, which gives it "a constant thrust in its movements in space", points out Pedro Molinero, a telecommunications engineer who for more than 30 years has been Hispasat's director of operations and head of its satellite control centre in Arganda (Madrid).  

Electric propulsion uses a source of ions that are accelerated by a magnetic field, all of which are light in weight and volume. The result is that "although the thrust is much lower than that of conventional chemical engines, it results in greater electronic equipment on board and, in particular, in a longer operational stay in orbit". Thanks to this, Amazonas Nexus is "the cornerstone" of a transformation project that Panduro describes as "marvellous". 

Amazonas Nexus is the work of the French-Italian company Thales Alenia Space, which, together with the space systems branch of Airbus, is one of the two largest satellite manufacturers in the European Union. Built and integrated in the company's Cannes factory on the Côte d'Azur, the Nexus also carries technologies developed and manufactured by Spain's GMV, Sener Aerospace and Thales Alenia Space España. The headquarters of all three are located in the Technology Park in the town of Tres Cantos, 25 kilometres from Madrid. 

The launch of Amazonas Nexus coincides in date with another Hispasat success. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has provisionally awarded Hispasat a concession worth 76.3 million euros to provide ultra-fast connectivity to areas lacking fixed coverage. Minister Nadia Calviño intends to close the digital divide in rural, remote and sparsely populated areas of Spain, so Hispasat must provide until 31 December 2027 a service of at least 100 Mbps at a price of 35 euros per month for the end user.