Avionics 4000 by Thales Alenia Space clocks up 100 years cumulated in orbit

Avionics 4000 equipping Thales Alenia Space's entire Spacebus family of platforms, which was qualified in flight with the launch of the AMC-12 satellite on February 3, 2005, has now celebrated 100 years of cumulated service in orbit.

The Avionic 4000 is used on 22 operational satellites in geostationary orbit, for 11 different customers.

This innovative spaceborne Avionics is recognized for both its robustness and operability, which makes it a perfect match for today's most demanding operators.

The Avionics 4000 handles three main functions:
- satellite attitude control
- data handling
- electrical power supply and distribution.

It is driven by a single software program. The whole is systematically validated on the ground using a dedicated avionics test bench.

The key success factors for this completely integrated avionics are:
- centralized architecture
- innovative attitude control system for secure, precise control
- multistandard communications buses
- modular, versatile design
- powerful, flexible, state-of-the-art computer
- automated and autonomous FDIR (Failure Detection Isolation and Recovery) system.

Based on this unprecedented avionics, Thales Alenia Space quickly equipped its satellites with a 100 V power supply bus, guaranteeing high-power compatibility and weight savings. It was the first company to install star sensors on geostationary satellites.

These major advantages and innovative design were in particular responsible for the successful recovery of two satellites placed into the wrong transfer orbit by their launch vehicles, Palapa D in 2009 and Yamal-402 in 2012. Today, these satellites are today fully operational for their respective operators.