6 June 2016 – Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second largest space company, has completed integration of PerúSAT-1, Peru’s first Earth observation satellite. It was built in less than 24 months. PerúSAT-1 was ordered by the Peruvian government for its national space agency, CONIDA, in 2014. PerúSAT-1, based on the highly flexible, compact AstroBus-S platform, will observe Earth via a revolutionary silicon carbide optical instrument system at 70 cm resolution.

PerúSAT-1 proves that a powerful and sophisticated Earth observation satellite can be built in less than two years. AIT (Assembly Integration and Test) of the instrument was completed in about eight months, with the platform construction phase, satellite construction, and technical and operational system validation taking only five months each, respectively.

This success was made possible by the creation of the “Projects Factory©”, a new and more integrated workingorganisation in the Space System business unit. This new way of working brings down development and construction lead times for satellites up to 500 kg and optimises their costs and schedule delivery, without impacting quality in any way.