Building the I-4 series

Europeans head multi-national team

An international team of space technologists from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the USA and Canada collaborated on the Inmarsat-4 satellite programme, which cost about US$1.5 billion.

Inmarsat signed European satellite manufacturer EADS Astrium as the lead contractor to build the three Inmarsat-4 satellites, based on EADS' highly successful Eurostar spacecraft platform.

The main body of the I-4 satellites was constructed in Britain, including:

The bus - houses the onboard rocket engine that positions the spacecraft in geostationary orbit - was built at the EADS Astrium facility in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

The payload - the satellite's communications electronics - was assembled at the company's facility in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

The other main elements of the spacecraft - the antenna, the solar arrays and the 9-metre reflector - were manufactured in Canada, Germany, and the USA, and were then transported to the EADS Astrium facility in Toulouse, France, for integration with the bus and payload.

EADS Astrium