OHB System AG, a company of OHB AG (ISIN: DE0005936124, Prime Standard) and Astrium, the industrial prime contractor in the implementation of the European Data Relay Satellite System (EDRS), signed an addendum to the existing preliminary authorization to proceed (PATP) for the development and construction of a dedicated EDRS satellite. The addendum arose after Astrium and the European Space Agency ESA had officially signed the contracts for the implementation of the EDRS program on October 4, 2011.

As a result of this addendum, the contract volume awarded to OHB System AG has risen from an initial EUR 7.4 million to EUR 52,135 million for development work from April 2011 until the end of July 2012. The launch is scheduled for the end of 2015.

OHB System will be building the dedicated EDRS satellite on the basis of the SmallGeo platform, which is currently being developed under ESA’s ARTES 11 program.

The decision to go ahead with EDRS under German lead management was made at the ESA council of ministers conference in Den Haag in 2008. It is now being implemented under the industrial leadership of Astrium in Germany with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).