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EADS Astrium awarded Fleet Satellite Control Center contract for Arabsat-4A, Arabsat-4B, Arabsat-2B and Arabsat-3A

Amsterdam, Toulouse, Friedrichshafen, Stevenage, 07 September 2004

ARABSAT, the communication satellite operator based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has awarded EADS Astrium a contract for a Satellite Control Center (SCC) to control Arabsat-4A and Arabsat-4B, Arabsat 2B and Arabsat 3A satellites.

EADS Astrium will design, integrate, validate, install and deploy the SCC on Arabsat sites, at Dirab (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and at Tunis (Tunisia).

This contract will deliver to ARABSAT a user-friendly, state-of-the-art and fully integrated multi-mission control center. The OPSWARE products will provide operations automation and unification, which relieve operators from routine tasks, permit to keep the highest availability of service and to consolidate the operations of the fleet.

The SCC will be based on EADS Astrium OPSWARE control center products. EADS Astrium has subcontracted the TM/TC layer to GMV with its hifly(tm) product.

The EADS Astrium OPSWARE products that will be used include:

* FOST for Offline Database Management
* OPSAT for Procedures Preparation
* OPSEXECUTER for Procedures Execution
* QUARTZ++ for orbit Flight Dynamics Software

The new SCC will replace the existing SCC for Arabsat-2B and Arabsat-3A Alcatel Spacebus 3000 satellites, and will be used for the Eurostar-based Arabsat-4A and Arabsat-4B being developed by EADS Astrium.

Many operators to perform LEOP and / or routine operations, from single satellite mission to complete fleet of heterogeneous satellites, are using OPSWARE products

Hifly(tm) is based on SCOS 2000, ESA's new generation mission control system kernel. SCOS 2000 benefits from ESA continuous support and is used in the control centers of most ESA satellites.

EADS Astrium provides a full range of solutions for the ground infrastructures for Earth Observations and for Communication Networks. It offers end-to-end solutions for spacecraft mission centers and spacecraft control centers both for Astrium internal use and for external customers.
About EADS Astrium

EADS Astrium is Europe's leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment.

EADS Astrium is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS SPACE, which is dedicated to providing civil and defense space systems. In 2003 EADS SPACE had a turnover of €2.4 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services. In 2003, EADS generated revenues of € 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 100,000.

Press contact:
Rémi ROLAND
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 34 88 35 78

Dr. Christian ERLES
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 39 06 32 53

Alistair SCOTT
EADS SPACE (UK)
Tel.: +44 (0) 1438 77 3698

Mathias PIKELJ
EADS SPACE (GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 7545 8 91 23