Optical and Quantum

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Security And cryptoGrAphic (SAGA) mission has entered the system definition and preliminary design phase (Phase B2), marking the beginning of the development of the first quantum key sharing mission designed for European governments. A world leading aerospace consortium led by Thales Alenia Space has won a €50 million contract to design the mission.

ESA, in partnership with Japanese company, Space Compass Corporation, has signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) to jointly conduct the feasibility study for Japan’s LAIDEN project and ESA’s High Throughput Optical Network (HydRON) demonstration system.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) jointly hosted a workshop to address the challenges and opportunities in the interconnection of quantum networks, for example, through future scalable quantum computers and devices over large distances.