Northrop Grumman Corp has been awarded a contract by Space Norway to deliver its Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) system.
It will design, manufacture and integrate two satellites, as well as provide critical ground infrastructure.
The ASBM satellites will carry multiple hosted payloads, including an X-Band payload for the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and a Ka-Band payload for Inmarsat.
Northrop Grumman announced last year that it will also provide two Extremely High Frequency eXtended Data Rate payloads for the Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalisation to the US Air Force for integration on the spacecraft.
These systems are designed to improve secure and continuous communications in the North Polar Region.
Frank DeMauro, general manager (space systems) at Northrop Grumman, said: “This contract award marks our first mission with Space Norway; we appreciate the confidence they have in our capabilities to deliver high-quality communication satellites.
By using our flight-proven GeoStar platform coupled with our ‘end to end’ payload integration capabilities, we are eager to demonstrate our ability to provide innovative solutions that regularly exceed our customers’ mission needs.”
The ASBM satellite system will be designed, built and tested at Northrop Grumman’s satellite-manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia. The GeoStar platform has been used on more than 40 spacecraft.
ASBM is scheduled for a dual launch in late 2022.