In a major boost to its plans to establish roots in the Asian business territory, Swiss manufacturer of advanced satellite solutions SWISSto12 has announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Melco) to pursue joint opportunities on advanced payloads, radio frequency (RF) products, and market development in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region.
Founded in 2011, Swissto12 works in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). Its core mission is to enable a transformational shift in the global satellite communications industry, away from legacy large, purpose-built, expensive and slow-to-deploy services, towards smaller, faster, cheaper assets that leverage software-defined, reconfigurable payload architectures and agile, multi-orbit capabilities.
It describes its core HummingSat platform as a new class of geostationary (GEO) satellites that are “significantly” smaller and more cost-efficient than conventional GEO craft. HummingSat is said to offer new economics for the geostationary satellite market, unlocking faster builds, lower costs and ride-share launches. It also looks to offer a telecoms-grade service backbone that plugs directly into the 3GPP non-terrestrial networks standard, designed for mass-market adoption.
The craft was developed in collaboration with the ESA through its public-private partnership programme. The company said its RF products benefit from unique and patented 3D printing technologies and associated radio frequency product designs that deliver lightweight, compact, high-performing and “competitive” RF functionality. First deliveries are scheduled for 2027.
Swissto12 believes its form factor can support cost-effective production and ride-share launch opportunities with its proprietary, space-qualified additive manufacturing technology and advanced RF systems, further enhancing payload performance, streamlining production, and reducing manufacturing time and cost.
SWISSto12 said the MoU with Melco underscores growing market adoption of its HummingLink payload technology. Joint opportunities will be based on Melco’s existing satellite system expertise and integration capabilities, together with SWISSto12’s proprietary 3D-printing designs and processes that form the foundation of its next-generation payloads. That is, say the partners, smaller, lighter, highly performant, yet built in materially shorter timeframes.
In addition to the MoU, Melco has awarded SWISSto12 a contract to provide advanced phased array antenna products for the GEO secure communications programme of the Japanese government.
SWISSto12’s “innovative” technologies, including its 3D printing-based component manufacturing technology and small geostationary satellite platform, hold “tremendous potential”, according to Masahiko Arai, executive officer and group president of defence and space systems at Mitsubishi Electric.
“By combining these technologies with our expertise in the development and manufacturing of defence- and space-related systems, which we have cultivated over the years, we are confident that we can deliver unprecedented value to our customers,” Arai added. “Through this collaboration, we will leverage the respective strengths of both companies to pursue new business opportunities in Japan and international markets, while working to deliver advanced and highly competitive defence and space solutions.”
SWISSto12 CEO Emile de Rijk said: “We are proud to partner strategically with Melco and support the next-generation sovereign communications system of Japan. Demand in APAC is growing for innovative, advanced payloads and RF products across sovereign land, sea, air and space applications, and we are confident that, together, we can scale our ability to meet it.”
