Saudi- $ 400 m deal signed to launch 6th generation satellite 

(MENAFN - Arab News) Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) signed 400 million contracts to make and launch the sixth generation satellite (Badr7) in Riyadh yesterday.

Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Muhammad Mulla and French Economic Development Minister Arnaud Montebourg attended the ceremony.
Arabsat signed the deals with the consortium of two companies Astrium and Thales Alenia Space and Arianespace.

Khalid bin Ahmed Balkhyour, president and CEO of Arabsat said that the contracts for manufacturing and launching Badr7 were worth more than 400 million. "The new satellite Badr-7 will be co-located at Arabsat exclusive Hot Spot 26E with Arabsat other satellites known as Badr. Badr-7 will provide massive satellite capacities for television broadcasting, telecommunications and information exchanging services in Ku-band in addition to the broadband services in Ka-band," he said. "The 6th generation satellites are a quantum leap in terms of the manufacturing technology and the capabilities of these satellites," the CEO said.

Badr-7 will be manufactured by the consortium of Astrium that will manufacture the highly reliable Eurostar E3000 platform and Thales Alenia Space that will design and build the communications payload, while the Global company Arianespace will launch the satellite. The new satellite will cover the Middle East, Africa, Asia and many parts of Europe.