REPLACING AGING IN-ORBIT SATELLITES WILL DRIVE DELIVERIES TO AIRBUS GEO-INFORMATION SERVICES
NEWTOWN, Conn. - Airbus (formerly Astrium) Geo-Information Services does not receive direct funding or guaranteed contracts from governments, as many of its competitors do. However, the company does continue to have close working relationships with governments around the world. For example, the U.K. Ministry of Justice (MOJ) selected Airbus to provide mapping and monitoring services for a new electronic monitoring program.
Airbus also has the rights to distribute imagery from government-owned satellites, such as the French Pleiades, as well as its own fleet of remote sensing satellites.
In addition to revenue from government sources, Airbus continues to improve its commercial offerings as well. In 2013, the company began discussions with Hisdesat, a Spanish satellite operator, to share imagery from Airbus' TerraSAR spacecraft and Hisdesat's PAZ satellites. The agreement will improve coverage and revisit rates, making the data form the SAR satellites more appealing to customers.
Due to the company's ability to generate revenue, Forecast International expects a low but steady stream of satellite deliveries throughout the forecast period.
Following the delivery of the SPOT 7 in June 2014, Forecast International expects Airbus to take delivery of a radar imaging satellite. No official contract has been signed, and the purchase of a radar satellite to replace TerraSAR-X was considered questionable at one time. However, the company has signed data sharing agreements with both Canada's MDA and Spain's Hisdesat, which require sharing information from TerraSAR spacecraft. This makes TerraSAR data more marketable and requires replacement spacecraft once the current spacecraft reach the end of their lives.
In addition, Airbus will build a radar imaging satellite for Germany's SARah network, creating efficiencies of scale if Astrium were to build an additional satellite for the commercial market. TerraSAR-X 2 is expected to be similar to the SARah satellite being built for Germany. For this reason, TerraSAR-X 2 is expected to be delivered to Astrium Services in 2018.
Satellites will continue to be delivered to Airbus Geo-Information Services following the delivery of TerraSAR-X 2 to replace aging in-orbit satellites.
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