SpaceX F9: European Data Relay System-C (EDRS-C , Airbus/ESA) mission

[DocM]

Interesting....an Airbus/European Space Agency (ESA) payload announced right before the ESA Ministerial meeting. To be a fly on the wall when this comes up!

http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/42682airbus-negotiating-spacex-launch-for-esa-supported-laser-relay-satellite

Airbus Negotiating SpaceX Launch for ESA-supported Laser Relay Satellite

PARIS ? Airbus Defence and Space is negotiating with SpaceX for a late-2016 launch of the European Space Agency?s European Data Relay System (EDRS) program?s second geostationary-orbit satellite designed to commercialize laser communications links worldwide.

The satellite, called EDRS-C, would be the second geostationary-orbit laser communications node for the commercial EDRS service, the first being a laser terminal fitted onto Eutelsat?s Eutelsat 9B commercial telecommunications satellite. Eutelsat 9B, whose laser communications payload is called EDRS-A, is scheduled for launch in early 2015 aboard a Russian Proton rocket.

The EDRS program is valued at slightly more than 500 million euros ($625 million). The 20-nation ESA, led by Germany, is financing nearly 75 percent of this amount, which includes the construction and pro rata shares of the launch of the two payloads, plus ESA?s share of placing similar laser terminals aboard Europe?s Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 satellites.

Commercial satellite fleet operator Avanti Communications of London has invested 74 million British pounds ($119 million) in the EDRS-C satellite for the right to place a commercial telecommunications payload on it.

Between that and 130 million euros ($163 million) being invested by Airbus, the private sector is paying $282 million to offset ESA?s EDRS charges. Airbus has contracted with OHB AG of Bremen, Germany, to build the EDRS-C satellite. It will use OHB?s SmallGeo platform, whose development was financed by ESA with substantial German backing.

Tesat Spacecom of Backnang, Germany ? wholly owned by Airbus ? is providing the laser communications terminals for all the EDRS-equipped satellites.

Airbus? decision to negotiate with Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, for a Falcon 9 launch of EDRS-C comes on the eve of a meeting of ESA governments that, among other subjects, will attempt to force a consensus among members to use Arianespace and the future Ariane 6 rocket ? to be in service in 2020 ? for all their launches.

In that context, the choice of SpaceX may appear to run counter to the emerging European policy. But EDRS is one of several ESA programs that employ a public-private partnership model that obliges the private sector to take its own risks to commercialize ESA-developed technologies.

In the case of laser communications, it has mainly been the German Aerospace Center, DLR, that has financed Tesat?s laser communications terminal development. Germany has been less enthusiastic than some ESA members, notably France, about obliging governments to contract with Evry, France-based Arianespace for all their launches.

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