[SatNews] Spanish satellite communications operator, HISPASAT, has now completed the first round of the selection process for the Prize for the Best Telecommunications Satellite Innovation Project, in which five candidate projects have been selected for the second round.

Of the 19 projects vying for the prize to mark the Company's 25th anniversary, the five that received the most votes from members of the jury were selected based on the usefulness and applicability of the innovations proposed. The five projects that have passed the first round of HISPASAT's Prize for the Best Telecommunications Satellite Innovation Project are:

• Spacecraft Modular Thermal Platform, submitted by A. Torres and D. Mishkinis, from Iberespacio Tecnología Aeroespacial.
• R3SAT (Rapid deployment, Regional, Reconfigurable Satellite), submitted by Thales Alenia Space and DAS Photonics.
• Payload Control System, submitted by Francisco Javier de Pablos, from GMV.
• Bragg-fiber optical temperature sensing and its applications in telecommunications satellites, submitted by Ernesto García Pérez, from Airbus DS Crisa.
• AFeNSat (Antenna Feeding Network for New Generation Satellite Communications), submitted by Carlos Alberto Leal Sevillano, Jesús María Rebollar Machain, José Ramón Montejo Garai and Jorge Alfonso Ruiz Cruz.

In round two, which is now under way, the jury will assess the technical soundness of these five projects before delivering its final decision this May. The awards ceremony will be held in June at HISPASAT's Madrid headquarters and will be attended by Industry, Energy and Tourism Minister José Manuel Soria. The winning proposal will receive 12,000 euros and a diploma. The runner up, in turn, will be given 5,000 euros and a diploma.