City workers could play ‘major role’ in new satellite contract

It comes after the company today announced it secured a deal to build a trio of devices for British telecommunications firm Inmarsat.

The GX7, 8 and 9 will be the first satellites based on Airbus' new OneSat line and will be fully reconfigurable in orbit.

They will provide broadband connectivity to remote users, including those on aircraft, ships and oil rigs.

On the role workers at Airbus Defence and Space in Hilsea will play in the contract, spokesman Jeremy Close said: ‘We’re working that out. We’re pretty hopeful they will play a major role.’

Mr Close said it is ‘premature’ to link the deal with the estimated 30 employees who left Airbus in Portsmouth after it was announced the high-profile Galileo satellite contract would move to the EU after Brexit.

However, he said: ‘This is certainly a very positive step in maintaining jobs in Portsmouth.’

He added: ‘It’s very good news for Portsmouth which secures its place in the space industry.’

The three Inmarsat satellites will feature on board processors and active antennae, enabling them to adjust their coverage, capacity and frequency in orbit.

Airbus’ head of space systems, Nicolas Chamussy, said: ‘We are launching the OneSat product line for our customer Inmarsat, following the successes of the Airbus-built Inmarsat-4 spacecraft, Alphasat and the Inmarsat-6 satellites, which are currently under construction.

‘This latest contract continues the long standing innovation relationship between Airbus and Inmarsat.

‘OneSat is a truly disruptive product, both from a manufacturing, and operational point of view, which allows Airbus to offer our customer a market enabling solution with reduced cost and time to orbit.’

Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat, said the satellites could be ready to deploy in 2023.

Nor Airbus or Inmarsat is revealing the price of the contract.