The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the French Space agency (CNES) have become partners by signing a contract on acquiring and owning two new 13 meter full-motion antennas for satellite operations together.
The antennas will be placed at two different ground station sites, fully or partly owned and operated by SSC; the Esrange Satellite Station in northern Sweden (68 degrees N, 21 degrees E) and the Inuvik Satellite Station in Canada (68 degrees N, 133 degrees W).
The two stations are strategically located near the North Pole and are the latest contribution within PrioraNet, SSC’s worldwide network of ground stations for satellite communication. The two new antennas enable CNES to have frequent contact with their satellites placed in polar orbits.
Mikael Stern, General Manager, Satellite Operations Division at SSC, explains that “by building up a long duration partnership with CNES, a most prominent space agency, we strengthen our position as the leading commercial satellite operator in the world”.
Jean-Marc Soula, Senior Advisor for Ground Network Operations at CNES says that “we have been working together with SSC since many years and we know that we are dealing with an experienced and reliable partner. By signing this partnership we certain the communication chain to our satellites in orbit and strengthen the quality of our satellite missions”.
CNES has by this contract access to parts of the antenna capacity and SSC will sell the rest of the “free time” to other satellite owners in need of ground stations on high latitude. The contract is signed for the twelve coming years.
