TEMPO Payload to be Integrated

Intelsat has selected Maxar Technologies to manufacture Intelsat 40e, a next-generation geostationary communications satellite scheduled to launch in 2022, Maxar announced on 3 February.

Maxar will integrate NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) payload with the Intelsat 40e satellite. “When it’s launched, Intelsat 40e will be the newest addition to our next-generation Intelsat EPIC, which is already providing our global customers with flexible, high-performance connectivity they can count on today – and in the future,” explained Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler. “Intelsat continuously invests in innovative new satellite and hybrid technologies that make it easy and affordable for our customers to connect people, devices and networks, even in the most remote locations.”

Based on Maxar’s proven 1300-class satellite platform and Intelsat EPIC, Intelsat 40e will provide customers across North and Central America with flexible, high-throughput, coast-to-coast coverage. The additional capacity will also support the growing number of customers using Intelsat managed-service offerings, including those working with the company to solve connectivity challenges for commercial and private planes, vehicles in motion and other mobility applications.

NASA selected Maxar last year to host its TEMPO payload, using the utilizing the Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) contract vehicle. Now that Maxar has identified Intelsat 40e as the satellite, the company will begin the integration process. TEMPO is a UV-visible spectrometer that will detect pollutants by measuring sunlight reflected and scattered from the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The resulting data will be used to enhance air-quality forecasts in North America, enabling more effective early public warning of pollution incidents.

“Maxar and Intelsat have a strategic partnership that goes back more than 40 years [and Intelsat 40e is] the 54th satellite that Maxar will build for Intelsat over the course of our long and successful history together,” stated Maxar CEO Dan, Jablonsky. “Maxar [has also] collaborated with NASA for more than 50 years [and our] recent work with NASA on TEMPO and several other space infrastructure missions demonstrates positive momentum for our expanding civil space portfolio.”