Arabsat and SpaceX Sign Contract to Launch 7A Satellite, Falcon 9 Will Carry Arabsat 7A to Its Orbital Position 30.5 East

Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) announced today that it has selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to launch its new satellite, Arabsat 7A. Arabsat 7A is the first Arabsat 7th generation satellite and is considered one of the latest satellite technologies in terms of manufacturing, payload, efficiency of performance, and coverage flexibility. This announcement marks the third time that Arabsat has selected SpaceX for launch: first in 2019 with Falcon Heavy’s launch of Arabsat and SpaceX will also launch Arabsat’s BADR-8 satellite on Falcon 9 next year.

Al-Hamedi Al-Anezi, CEO of Arabsat, said, "We value our work with SpaceX. The signing of this agreement is an extension of the trusted relationship with SpaceX that has been built over the past few years since the launch of Arabsat 6A. Arabsat 7A will be one of Arabsat’s first software-defined payload satellites, offering high throughput Ku-band capacity to help Arabsat expand its services into several verticals to enhance its portfolio of products and solutions over the Middle East, Africa and beyond, to parts of Europe.”

“We’re excited to be selected for our third Arabsat launch,” said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero. “Having worked together on the Falcon Heavy launch of Arabsat 6A and the upcoming launch of BADR-8, our work with Arabsat is a testament to our Falcon fleet’s reliability and safety.”