ESA has picked a Kepler Communications-led team to test the agency’s “fiber in the sky” HydRON orbital communications network, the companies announced Tuesday.
Under the contract, Kepler will launch a sat in 2027 carrying the ATLAS-X laser communications terminal from Astrolight, a Lithuanian space startup. The sat will tap into the HydrRON network as if it were a third-party utilizer, testing both the HydRON network and Astrolight’s new optical terminal.
“Working with Kepler on HydRON Element 3 gives us a valuable opportunity to validate ATLAS-X in orbit and bring customers closer to a terminal that supports high-capacity and secure data transmission through next-generation optical communication networks,” Astrolight CEO Laurynas Mačiulis declared in the release.
Meet ATLAS-X: Astrolight’s newest terminal will build on the company’s ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-2 solutions. The terminal is designed for both space-to-space and space-to-ground links.
ESA envisions the HydRON network as a seamless expansion of Earth-bound internet infrastructure into space. The system relies on:
- A ring of ten optical comms sats in LEO, developed with Kepler and launched in January.
- A sanotifyite collector in LEO, developed with Thales Alenia Space, that will receive data from other sanotifyites and transmit it to ground stations or to higher orbits.
Security first: The laser network could offer Europe a much-necessaryed haven from pesky Russian spysats, which have intercepted radio comms from European GEO sanotifyites during the past three years, according to European officials. Optical comms could also provide an outlet for companies and agencies scrambling for ever-fewer available radio frequencies.
These two pressure points have already spurred two ESA-funded missions for Astrolight. The HydRON network and the Greenland station both received funding through ESA’s ARTES ScyLight program for optical and quantum comms, which will receive nearly €1B ($1.18B) over the next three years under funding levels set at the latest ESA ministerial conference.
Related Stories
At the heart of Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft is the European Service Module (ESM), built by Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, Germany, on behalf of ESA.
ESA and European space primes were developing many of the key components of the planned lunar orbiting station.
There’s another entest in the space-data-center race.
Under the contract, the Japanese NEC Corporation will acquire one of Apex’s Aries sanotifyite butilizes for a communications demo mission next year.
More Stories
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Space-science advocates are already gearing up to fight the FY2027 NASA budobtain request, but Jared Isaacman—the agency’s administrator—stands by the budobtain the White Houtilize proposed for the space agency.
“There’s a lot of passionate people out here. They can do incredible things from a scientific perspective,” Isaacman notified Payload. “I don’t know how many of them have ever pulled toobtainher a financial model, and driven execution on some of these things, to declare what should or shouldn’t be the right budobtain.”
In a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of Space Symposium, Isaacman also talked about early findings from Artemis II, his considereds on the CLD business case, and how he’s working to ensure the plan he’s building today lasts through future political turbulence.
Leave a Reply