Signing the funding of NewSat's Jabiru-1; their U.S. partners U.S. Ex-Im Bank and Lockheed Martin were present, along with the Australian Ambassador to the U.S. who recognized NewSat's achievements in a speech. Photos courtesy of Steve Canning

The NewSat Jabiru-1 satellite project has been underway for a while, but yesterday it was ceremoniously brought together with the primary companies involved. A huge achievement with the funding of US$611M for the project.

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] was awarded the contract from NewSat Limited (NewSat) of Australia to build the Jabiru-1 satellite last year. The construction of the satellite began and it will be ready for launch in the second half of 2014.

Based on the highly reliable A2100 spacecraft platform manufactured by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS), Newtown, Pa., Jabiru-1 will provide Ka-band services to South Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Africa. The satellite has been designed for a minimum service life of 15 years. Jabiru-1 is NewSat's first geostationary communications satellite and will provide high-powered satellite capacity to enterprise customers in the oil, natural gas, mining, financial and government sectors.

The Jabiru-1 satellite will feature 50 Ka-band high power TWTAs configured in a variety of spot beams, theater beams, and steered beams to provide flexible communication solutions for a range of diverse applications. Lockheed Martin's solution utilizes and leverages A2100 heritage and flight proven equipment to meet the Jabiru-1 schedule requirements.

Jabiru-1 will deliver over 7.6 GHz of capacity, providing high-powered Ka-band coverage, to meet the growing demands from government and enterprise sectors across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Advantages of Jabiru’s Ka-band

• “raw” Ka-band capacity, not managed services
• “new” capacity to high demand regions
• range of multi-spot, regional and steerable beams
• flexible payloads to meet evolving customer demands
• less congested than Ku- and C-band
• higher bandwidths and speeds
• larger transponders
• smaller end-user antennas
• cost-effective terminal equipment
• more efficient support of high bandwidth applications

Kim Beazley Australian Ambassador to the United States

Jabiru Satellite Program

The Jabiru Satellite Program’s fleet of satellites will deliver high-powered Ka-band coverage for high demand government and enterprise environments around the world. The satellites will initially focus on the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia, with longer-term coverage extending into the Pacific Ocean and the Americas. The Jabiru satellites will provide “new” capacity to high demand regions, unlocking bandwidth capacity and coverage that is unavailable today. “Raw” capacity and flexible payloads will satisfy partners’ business requirements, enabling them to build and manage their own networks.