Dutch Space of Leiden, Netherlands, will provide solar arrays for Europe’s Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 Earth-observation satellites under contracts totaling 23.7 million euros ($32.2 million), the company announced Feb. 23.
The Sentinel satellites are being financed by the European Space Agency and the European Commission as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.
Dutch Space has contracted with Sentinel 1 prime contractor ThalesAlenia Space of France and Italy to provide the solar arrays for the identical Sentinel 1A and Sentinel 1B satellites as part of a contract valued at 13.4 million euros. Sentinel 1A and Sentinel 1B will carry C-band radar imagers as the principal observing instrument.
Under a contract with Astrium of Friedrichshafen, Germany, Dutch Space will build the Sentinel 2A and Sentinel 2B solar arrays. The contract is valued at 10.3 million euros. The Sentinel 2A and Sentinel 2B spacecraft will carry super-spectral imagers.
The Sentinel 1A and Sentinel 2A satellites are scheduled for launch in 2011 and 2012.
Working with Dutch Space on the contracts will be a separate Astrium division in Ottobrunn, Germany, which will provide the solar cells, and Airborne Composites of The Hague, Netherlands, which will build the carbon-fiber panels.
