RIYADH — Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), a communications satellite operator based in Riyadh, has signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space to manufacture a new satellite, Badr-8, to deliver broadcast, broadband, and telecommunications services over Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. Badr-8 will be the first of the operator’s seventh generation of satellites, which is expected to be launched at the beginning of 2023. The BADR-8 will replace and increase Arabsat’s capacity and augment its core business at the BADR hotspot. The BADR-8 satellite will be based on Airbus Eurostar Neo electric orbit, allowing access to a broad range of launchers. The construction will include the Airbus developed TELEO optical communications payload demonstrator. TELEO is projected to allow very high capacity analog optical feeder link communications. The TELEO is a part of development projects by Airbus to innovate a new generation of optical communications technology in space to be integrated into its future commercial products, which is highly robust against jamming. While speaking about the project, Khalid Balkheyour, president and CEO of Arabsat said: “We are delighted to sign this contract with our long term partner Airbus. It marks another milestone in our objectives to provide customers with premium satellite technology with the highest level of performance and to expand reliability and service security. BADR-8 will be joining our Badr-network at Arabsat 26 degrees East hotspot, expanding our service over EMEA region.” Jean-Marc Nasr, head of Space Systems at Airbus, said, “BADR-8 incorporates the best of our expertise and technologies, including very innovative optical communication hosted payload. This further strengthens our continuing strategic partnership with the Arab Satellite Communications Organisation, which has been connecting people by satellite across the Middle East and the world for more than 40 years.”