While not considered a banner year for the satellite communications sector, 2010 was not as down as some might have forecasted. Many executives navigated their companies successfully through a tough economic environment, and the following five nominees stood out.

Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium

Under CEO Matt Desch, Iridium’s total revenue improved in all four quarters of 2010, and the MSS company reported full-year revenue of $353 million, up from $319 million in 2009. In addition, Iridium grew its total billable subscriber base by 25 percent during the year to nearly 450,000 users and strengthened each of its business sectors. Government service revenues grew by 10.7 percent, commercial services by 14.7 percent and subscriber equipment by 9 percent. Iridium’s total sales grew 10.6 percent on average.

Besides boosting revenues, strengthening its global partnership networks and rolling out a slew of new products, Desch’s main objective and challenge in 2010 was to plan for the operator’s next-generation offering — Iridium Next — at a time when financing ambitious projects was difficult. Because of the economic climate, some analysts wrote off Iridium Next as unrealistic and too expensive, but the satellite operator secured and closed a $1.8 billion financing facility with a consortium of international investors led by credit export agency Coface. The deal put Iridium’s full-scale system development contract with Thales Alenia Space and a launch contract with SpaceX into effect and opened the door for two long-term agreements that designate Boeing as Iridium’s sole operations and maintenance provider for the current constellation as well as granted Boeing exclusive operations and maintenance rights for the Iridium Next constellation.

Desch also led efforts to set up Iridium South Africa, an entity that will allow Iridium to operate, provide and sell mobile services in the country, where Iridium anticipates opportunities for more than 200 global distribution partners to form partnerships to deliver services in the South Africa.

The company also won three contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Information Systems Agency to upgrade the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Service Gateway in Hawaii. With the upgrades, Iridium is building in enhancements that support migration toward Iridium Next.
 

Petra Mateos-Aparicio, Chairwoman, Hispasat

As a regional operator working in both Europe and Latin America, Hispasat Chairwoman Petra Meteos-Aparicio provides a textbook example on how a smaller satellite operator can expand its reach and build a business.

Hispasat will once again see growth in both revenues and profits for fiscal year 2010, continuing a trend of strong increases in all key financial metrics over the past several years. In 2009, the operator saw profits increase by 50 percent compared to 2008, and the regional player’s profits doubled between 2007 and 2009.

Hispasat’s growth has been based, in part, on making great strides in Latin America, securing good transponder fill rates for both its Amazonas-1 and Amazonas-2 satellites. The operator signed contracts for capacity in Latin America with companies such as Spain-based Telefonica, which provides services in Spain and Latin America, and Brazil’s Petrobras. The majority of the capacity on the Amazonas-2 satellite, placed in orbit in October 2009, already has been sold, giving Hispasat an even stronger position in markets such as the United States and Mexico. At the end of 2009, more than 30 percent of Hispasat’s overall revenues were derived from the Americas.

The company ended the year with the launch of its Hispasat 1E satellite, the second of five spacecraft that form the basis of Hispasat’s latest growth plan

Hispasat also was selected in 2010 by NASA to participate in the hurricane research mission, Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes, intended to better understand how tropical storms form and then develop into hurricanes.

Due to Mateos’s astute leadership, Hispasat’s growth curve shows no signs of slowing, and with strong positions in both Latin America and Europe, it is an operator on the rise.
 

Neil Gaydon, CEO, Pace

Pace has emerged over the last few years as the new force within the set-top box market, and Neil Gaydon, who became CEO in 2006, is the man behind the company’s surge.

Pace works with cable, IPTV and terrestrial pay-TV operators but is particularly strong in the satellite field, working with operators such as BSkyB (United Kingdom), DirecTV (United States), Sky Deutschland (Germany), Astro (Malaysia) and Viasat (Nordics). In 2010, Pace also secured contracts with MultiChoice (Africa), among others, to cement its position in the satellite market.

In the first half of 2010, Pace saw profits before tax grow 40 percent compared to the same period in 2009, with revenues growing more than 20 percent to $989.5 million. Pace shipped nearly 10 million set-top boxes in this period, another double-digit percentage increase compared to the previous year.

Much of this growth can be attributed to Pace’s success in cracking the U.S. market, always a major test for an aspiring European technology company. At the end of June, Pace derived $357.6 million in revenues from the North American market due to its relationship with operators such as DirecTV and Comcast.

Pace also aims to be at the forefront in bringing cutting-edge technologies to the set-top box market. In June, the company became a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, as Pace looks to incorporate Wi-Fi technology into select set-top boxes.

Pace also has expanded its offerings in 2010 through acquisitions. In North America, Pace acquired 2Wire, adding services such as residential gateways, multi-service media platforms, remote management systems, value-added services, customer support and end-to-end integration and professional services. In Europe, Pace announced it would acquire French company Bewan Systems. Bewan’s residential gateway capabilities — including expertise in xDSL and cable DOCSIS 3.0 IP connectivity technologies — will combine with Pace’s existing gateway business, enabling Pace to offer converged gateway and digital TV solutions to pay-TV customers.

Pace is seen as one of the U.K’s finest technology companies and in April, the company won a Queens Award for international trade as recognition for Pace’s success in international markets, the third year in a row that Pace had won such an award.
 

Elon Musk, CEO, CTO, SpaceX

Along with performing two key test launches of the Falcon 9 heavy-lift launch vehicle, SpaceX CEO and CTO Elon Musk added $2.5 billion in business to the company’s launch manifest during 2010, raising the fledgling launch provider’s total manifest from 25 to more than 40 missions. Among those orders was a commercial launch deal with Iridium that SpaceX claims is the largest in history.

In June, SpaceX performed the first test launch of its Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX’s accomplishment boosted NASA’s confidence in the vehicle and put the company a step closer to providing cargo services to the International Space Station under the multibillion-dollar Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract.

In December, SpaceX became the first commercial operation in history to re-enter a spacecraft from Earth orbit, lofting its Dragon spacecraft into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket and then returning the vehicle and landing it less than a mile from the center of the targeted landing zone in the Pacific Ocean, bringing national attention to the future of the U.S. space program that could rely more heavily on commercially provided services. Previously, recovering a spacecraft that had re-entered from low-Earth orbit had been performed by only the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India and the European Space Agency.

The highlight of SpaceX’s commercial launch wins in 2010 was a $492 million contract with Iridium to place part of satellite operator’s Iridium Next constellation in orbit via multiple Falcon 9 missions scheduled to take place between 2015 and 2017. SpaceX also added commercial contracts to perform missions for Israel’s Space Communication Ltd., Space Systems/Loral and Taiwan’s National Space Organization.

SpaceX also raised $50 million in additional funding from investors and, in September, unveiled a commercial agreement with Astrium to provide dedicated launch services to the European institutional small satellite market using the Falcon 1 rocket.

Reynald Seznec, CEO, Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space posted a strong 2010 under CEO Reynald Seznec, winning 12 satellite manufacturing contracts along with adding to its capabilities via acquisitions.

Thales reported 1.13 billion euros ($1.46 billion) in orders in 2010, a 39 percent increase over the same period in 2009. Thales captured four commercial geostationary communications spacecraft orders — W6A and W3D from Eutelsat, Apstar 7B for APT Satellite Holding and Arsat 2 for Argentina’s Arsat. The four contracts trailed only Boeing and Space Systems/Loral, which captured five contracts apiece. Thales also captured contracts for the Jason-3, Athena-Fidus, Meteosat Third Generation (with partner OHB Technology) and Sicral 2 contracts from various government entities as well as awards to develop payloads for the U.S. Navy’s Geosat Follow-On 2 satellite and for three RSCC communications satellites.

Where Thales has taken a commanding lead on its competitors is in the low-Earth orbit sector. During 2010, the company completed and delivered the first six of the 48 Globalstar second-generation satellites it is manufacturing and also finalized its $2.2 billion contract with Iridium to design and build 81 Iridium Next spacecraft.

Thales received a Galileo System Support contract from the European Commission, one of six contracts for the Galileo system. Under the agreement, Thales Alenia Space Italia will perform overall system design, system security design, system integration, verification and in-orbit validation for Europe’s satellite navigation system.

Thales also boosted its capabilities via acquisitions, including the purchase of SESO, a precision-optics manufacturer, that augmented Thales’ ability to produce satellite optical sensors.

Through the first three quarters of 2010, Thales recorded revenue of 3.72 billion euros ($4.79 billion), a 7 percent increase from the same period in 2009.