Amazonas Nexus (Intelsat 46)

Amazonas Nexus [TAS]

Amazonas Nexus is a planned high-throughput geostationary communications satellite of Hispasat to cover the entire American continents, the North Atlantic corridor, as well as Greenland.

Hispasat and Thales Alenia Space signed a contract for the construction of Amazonas Nexus in January 2020. The 4500 kg satellite will be built on the all-electric propulsion Spacebus-Neo-200 bus with a power of 20 kW. It features a Ku-band High Throughput Payload to serve the Americas and North Atlantic air corridors and a Ka-band payload for gateway communications. It will notably include a fifth generation transparent digital processor (DTP), which can digitally process the transmitted data. Amazonas Nexus will have a life time of more than 15 years and will replace Amazonas 2.

The main novelty of Amazonas Nexus is a new generation Digital Transparent Processor (DTP), a technological breakthrough that is required to increase the mission's geographical flexibility in order to respond to eventual changes in the initially envisaged commercial scenario. The satellite payload will be digitally processed as a result of this element, allowing the satellite to assign in-orbit the required capacities at any time, providing the satellite with great resilience to the evolution of the communications market, both in the field of connectivity and data and in the field of content transmission. Amazonas Nexus is the most efficient satellite in HISPASAT's fleet due to its advanced design, HTS capacity, and versatility.

For Tele Greenland A/S a powerful payload of 800 MHz in Ku band, especially designed to provide Internet access in all remote towns and villages in North and East Greenland, will be embarked on the satellite. This capacity will also allow to provide corporate services to mining companies and serve as back-up system to restore communication services in emergency situations. The dedicated mission will be known as Greensat.

Additionally it hosts Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s Pathfinder 2 mission. The project is led by Artel. The Pathfinder 2 mission will include a 108 MHz payload of space capacity with rigorous levels of overdrive protection that comply with the Department of Defense’s demanding security requirements.

Intelsat has acquired in March 2023 a significant amount of capacity to meet demand for connectivity over the Americas. The company is leasing the satellite’s high-throughput Ku-band capacity from Spanish operator Hispasat for customers across the United States, Brazil, and North Atlantic Ocean. This capacity is called Intelsat 46.