Satellite 2011’s opening session in Washington D.C. saw a group of executives from four of the biggest satellite operators sitting on one panel talking about the future of the industry.
David McGlade who is the CEO of Intelsat, Daniel Goldberg Telesat’s CEO, Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat’s CEO and Romain Bausch who is both CEO and President of SES had discussions on everything from how the industry requires more work on being more innovative and speedy to the first ever commercial robotic satellite servicing contract.
McGlade had disclosed that Intelsat had entered into a satellite servicing contract with MDA (MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates), the Canadian robotics powerhouse. Under the agreement MDA is to provide over $280 million worth services to Intelsat. MDA is planning to launch its first service robot in a period of three and half years after the program starts. A time period of six months is also written in for working out the specifications between the two companies. Thus Mr. Roboto would be executing his first mission only after about four years. The Space Infrastructure Servicing (SIS) Vehicle developed by MDA would be introduced into the nearby geosynchronous orbit for servicing government and commercial satellites, which need fuel, maintenance tasks such as opening of a jammed solar array or antenna or removing small space junk and re-positioning operations.
Goldberg from Telesat revealed that the company was trying to find strategic alternatives and if they had something to announce they would definitely do so. According to Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat had always concentrated on organic growth and was not against other opportunities but not those the size of Telesat. Roamin Bausch from SES declared that his company was not actively looking out for mergers and acquisitions but would not rule it out completely.
Source: http://www.ses.com/